English

Numerical methods for fluctuation driven interactions between dielectrics

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-13 v2 Soft Condensed Matter Computational Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We develop a discretized theory of thermal Casimir interactions to numerically calculate the interactions between fluctuating dielectrics. From a constrained partition function we derive a surface free energy, while handling divergences that depend on system size and discretization. We derive analytic results for parallel plate geometry in order to check the convergence of the numerical methods. We use the method to calculate vertical and lateral Casimir forces for a set of grooves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0703229,
  title  = {Numerical methods for fluctuation driven interactions between dielectrics},
  author = {S. Pasquali and F. Nitti and A. C. Maggs},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0703229},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

revtex, 20 pages