Casimir stress in materials: hard divergency at soft walls
Quantum Physics
2017-11-15 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Abstract
The Casimir force between macroscopic bodies is well understood, but not the Casimir stress inside bodies. Suppose empty space or a uniform medium meets a soft wall where the refractive index is continuous but its derivative jumps. For this situation we predict a characteristic power law for the stress inside the soft wall and close to its edges. Our result shows that such edges are not tolerated in the aggregation of liquids at surfaces, regardless whether the liquid is attracted or repelled.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1704.03078,
title = {Casimir stress in materials: hard divergency at soft walls},
author = {Itay Griniasty and Ulf Leonhardt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.03078},
year = {2017}
}