Thermal and dissipative effects in Casimir physics

Abstract

We report on current efforts to detect the thermal and dissipative contributions to the Casimir force. For the thermal component, two experiments are in progress at Dartmouth and at the Institute Laue Langevin in Grenoble. The first experiment will seek to detect the Casimir force at the largest explorable distance using a cylinder-plane geometry which offers various advantages with respect to both sphere-plane and parallel plane geometries. In the second experiment, the Casimir force in the parallel plane configuration is measured with a dedicated torsional balance, up to 10 µm. Parallelism of large surfaces, critical for this configuration, is maintained through the use of inclinometer technology already implemented at Grenoble for the study of gravitationally bound states of ultracold neutrons. For the dissipative component of the Casimir force, we discuss detection techniques based upon the use of hyperfine spectroscopy of ultracold atoms and Rydberg atoms. Although quite challenging, this triad of experimental efforts, if successful, will give us a better knowledge of the interplay between quantum and thermal fluctuations of the electromagnetic field and of the nature of dissipation induced by motion of objects in quantum vacuum.

Exploring the quantum vacuum with cylinders

“…This is because, as the signal is stronger than in the sphere plane configuration, one can envisage sufficiently precise measurements at larger distances. This experiment is in progress [5,8].…”

Fifty Years of the Dynamical Casimir Effect

“…Therefore, the DCE can be considered as the specific subfield of a much bigger physical area, known nowadays under the name Casimir Physics. This whole area is outside the present study, so that we give only a few references to the relevant reviews and books [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Results from electrostatic calibrations for measuring the Casimir force in the cylinder-plane geometry

“…Recently, the use of a configuration with intermediate features between the parallel plate and the sphere-plane ones, (i.e., the cylinder-plane geometry) has been proposed, and its experimental feasibility was investigated at gaps of the order of 20 µm, limited by the roughness of the metallic surfaces [65][66][67]. This geometry is very relevant from the theoretical viewpoint since an exact solution for the Casimir force has been found [68,69], also providing another example of curved geometry in which the PFA may be tested against numerical techniques [70,71].…”