39 research outputs found
Temperature dependent graphene suspension due to thermal Casimir interaction
Thermal effects contributing to the Casimir interaction between objects are
usually small at room temperature and they are difficult to separate from
quantum mechanical contributions at higher temperatures. We propose that the
thermal Casimir force effect can be observed for a graphene flake suspended in
a fluid between substrates at the room temperature regime. The properly chosen
materials for the substrates and fluid induce a Casimir repulsion. The balance
with the other forces, such as gravity and buoyancy, results in a stable
temperature dependent equilibrium separation. The suspended graphene is a
promising system due to its potential for observing thermal Casimir effects at
room temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, in APL production 201
Fluid Mechanical and Electrical Fluctuation Forces in Colloids
Fluctuations in fluid velocity and fluctuations in electric fields may both
give rise to forces acting on small particles in colloidal suspensions. Such
forces in part determine the thermodynamic stability of the colloid. At the
classical statistical thermodynamic level, the fluid velocity and electric
field contributions to the forces are comparable in magnitude. When quantum
fluctuation effects are taken into account, the electric fluctuation induced
van der Waals forces dominate those induced by purely fluid mechanical motions.
The physical principles are applied in detail for the case of colloidal
particle attraction to the walls of the suspension container and more briefly
for the case of forces between colloidal particles.Comment: ReVTeX format, one *.eps figur
Electronic Detection of Gravitational Disturbances and Collective Coulomb Interactions
The cross section for a gravitational wave antenna to absorb a graviton may
be directly expressed in terms of the non-local viscous response function of
the metallic crystal. Crystal viscosity is dominated by electronic processes
which then also dominate the graviton absorption rate. To compute this rate
from a microscopic Hamiltonian, one must include the full Coulomb interaction
in the Maxwell electric field pressure and also allow for strongly
non-adiabatic transitions in the electronic kinetic pressure. The view that the
electrons and phonons constitute ideal gases with a weak electron phonon
interaction is not sufficiently accurate for estimating the full strength of
the electronic interaction with a gravitational wave.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX 1 figure afig1.ep
Casimir Forces and Graphene Sheets
The Casimir force between two infinitely thin parallel sheets in a setting of
such sheets is found. The finite two-dimensional conductivities, which
describe the dispersive and absorptive properties of each sheet, are taken into
account, whereupon the theory is applied to interacting graphenes. By exploring
similarities with in-plane optical spectra for graphite, the conductivity of
graphene is modeled as a combination of Lorentz type oscillators. We find that
the graphene transparency and the existence of a universal constant
conductivity result in graphene/graphene Casimir interaction at
large separations to have the same distance dependence as the one for perfect
conductors but with much smaller magnitude
Snell's Law from an Elementary Particle Viewpoint
Snell's law of light deflection between media with different indices of
refraction is usually discussed in terms of the Maxwell electromagnetic wave
theory. Snell's law may also be derived from a photon beam theory of light
rays. This latter particle physics view is by far the most simple one for
understanding the laws of refraction.Comment: ReVTeX Format 2 *.eps figure
Casimir energy for surfaces with constant conductivity
We consider the vacuum energy of the electromagnetic field in systems characterized by a constant conductivity using the zeta-regularization approach. The interaction in two cases is investigated: two infinitely thin parallel sheets and an infinitely thin spherical shell. We found that the Casimir energy for the planar system is always attractive and it has the same characteristic distance dependence as the interaction for two perfect semi-infinite metals. The Casimir energy for the spherical shell depends on the inverse radius of the sphere, but it maybe negative or positive depending on the value of the conductivity. If the conductivity is less than a certain critical value, the interaction is attractive, otherwise the Casimir force is repulsive regardless of the spherical shell radius. © 2014 American Physical Society