Forces Induced by Non-Equilibrium Fluctuations: The Soret-Casimir Effect
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-10 v1 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
The notion of fluctuation-induced forces is generalized to the cases where the fluctuations have nonequilibrium origin. It is shown that a net force is exerted on a single flat plate that restricts scale-free fluctuations of a scalar field in a temperature gradient. This force tends to push the object to the colder regions, which is a manifestation of thermophoresis or the Soret effect. In the classic two-plate geometry, it is shown that the Casimir forces exerted on the two plates differ from each other, and thus the Newton's third law is violated.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0308373,
title = {Forces Induced by Non-Equilibrium Fluctuations: The Soret-Casimir Effect},
author = {Ali Najafi and Ramin Golestanian},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0308373},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 5 postscript figures, uses (old) RevTex