Comment on "Demonstration of the Casimir Force in the 0.6 to 6 micrometer Range"

We comment on a recently published measurement of the Casimir force for distances in the 0.6 to 6 micrometer range between two Au surfaces (Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 5(1997)) and the net discrepancy reported for the comparison with theoretical predictions (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5475 (1998)).Comment: 1 page, LaTeX, 2 encapsulated postscript figure

Frequency up-converted radiation from a cavity moving in vacuum

We calculate the photon emission of a high finesse cavity moving in vacuum. The cavity is treated as an open system. The field initially in the vacuum state accumulates a dephasing depending on the mirrors motion when bouncing back and forth inside the cavity. The dephasing is not linearized in our calculation, so that qualitatively new effects like pulse shaping in the time domain and frequency up-conversion in the spectrum are found. Furthermore we predict the existence of a threshold above which the system should show self-sustained oscillations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, to appear in European Physical Journal D3, replaced version with few minor grammatical change

Generating photon pulses with an oscillating cavity

We study the generation of photon pulses from thermal field fluctuations through opto-mechanical coupling to a cavity with an oscillatory motion. Pulses are regularly spaced and become sharp for a high finesse cavity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, needs EuroPhysics Letters Stylefile, to appear in Europhysics Letter

Casimir torque between nanostructured plates

We investigate in detail the Casimir torque induced by quantum vacuum fluctuations between two nanostructured plates. Our calculations are based on the scattering approach and take into account the coupling between different modes induced by the shape of the surface which are neglected in any sort of proximity approximation or effective medium approach. We then present an experimental setup aiming at measuring this torque.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Roughness correction to the Casimir force : Beyond the Proximity Force Approximation

We calculate the roughness correction to the Casimir effect in the parallel plates geometry for metallic plates described by the plasma model. The calculation is perturbative in the roughness amplitude with arbitrary values for the plasma wavelength, the plate separation and the roughness correlation length. The correction is found to be always larger than the result obtained in the Proximity Force Approximation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, v2 with minor change

Development of a high sensitivity torsional balance for the study of the Casimir force in the 1-10 micrometer range

We discuss a proposal to measure the Casimir force in the parallel plate configuration in the $1-10\mu$m range via a high-sensitivity torsional balance. This will allow to measure the thermal contribution to the Casimir force therefore discriminating between the various approaches discussed so far. The accurate control of the Casimir force in this range of distances is also required to improve the limits to the existence of non-Newtonian forces in the micrometer range predicted by unification models of fundamental interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure