Related papers: Probing quantum vacuum geometrical effects with co…
We calculate the effect of the interaction between an optically active material and a Bose-Einstein condensate on the collective oscillations of the condensate. We provide explicit expressions for the frequency shift of the center of mass…
The lateral Casimir force acting between a sinusoidally corrugated gold plate and sphere was calculated and measured. The experimental setup was based on the atomic force microscope specially adapted for the measurement of the lateral…
Surface electric noise, i.e., the non-uniform distribution of charges and potentials on a surface, poses a great experimental challenge in modern precision force measurements. Such a challenge is encountered in a number of different…
We present calculations of the quantum and thermal Casimir interaction between real mirrors in electromagnetic fields using the scattering approach. We begin with a pedagogical introduction of this approach in simple cases where the…
We measure the Casimir force between a gold sphere and a silicon plate with nanoscale, rectangular corrugations with depth comparable to the separation between the surfaces. In the proximity force approximation (PFA), both the top and…
We study the torque arising between two corrugated metallic plates due to the interaction with electromagnetic vacuum. This Casimir torque can be measured with torsion pendulum techniques for separation distances as large as 1$\mu$m. It…
The Casimir effect refers to the existence of a macroscopic force between conducting plates in vacuum due to quantum fluctuations of fields. These forces play an important role, among other things, in the design of nano-scale mechanical…
We study the equilibrium states of a vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We find that quantum effects can be important and that it is even possible for the vortex to be strongly squeezed, which…
We have performed a measurement of the Casimir-Polder force using a magnetically trapped 87-Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. By detecting perturbations of the frequency of center-of-mass oscillations of the condensate perpendicular to the…
In this talk I review various developments in the past year concerning quantum vacuum energy, the Casimir effect. In particular, there has been continuing controversy surrounding the temperature correction to the Lifshitz formula for the…
A boundary undergoing relativistic motion can create particles from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phenomenon known as the dynamical Casimir effect. We examine the creation of particles, and more generally the transformation of quantum…
For the Casimir interaction between two nearby objects, the plane-wave basis proves convenient for numerical calculations as well as for analytical considerations leading to an optical interpretation of the relevant scattering processes of…
When exposed to intense electromagnetic fields, the quantum vacuum is expected to exhibit properties of a polarisable medium akin to a weakly nonlinear dielectric material. Various schemes have been proposed to measure such vacuum…
The Casimir effect, reflecting quantum vacuum fluctuations in the electromagnetic field in a region with material boundaries, has been studied both theoretically and experimentally since 1948. The forces between dielectric and metallic…
The general perturbative expression for the lateral Casimir force between two plates covered by longitudinal corrugations of arbitrary shape is obtained. This expression is applicable for corrugation periods larger than the separation…
We study the interaction of a nearly resonant linearly polarized laser beam with a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. We show theoretically and experimentally that the cross-Kerr effect due to the saturation of the…
We have calculated dynamical Casimir-Polder interaction force between a moving ground state atom and a flat polarizable surface. The velocity of an atom can be close to the velocity of light. The material properties are taken into account…
We evaluate the quantum correlators associated with the Maxwell field vacuum distorted by the presence of plane parallel material surfaces. Regularization is performed through the generalized zeta funtion technique. Results are applied to a…
In this paper we calculate the Casimir-Polder force density (force per unit area acting on the elements of the surface) on a metallic plate placed in front of a neutral atom. To obtain the force density we use the quantum operator…
We calculate the dispersive force between a ground state atom and a non planar surface. We present explicit results for a corrugated surface, derived from the scattering approach at first order in the corrugation amplitude. A variety of…