Related papers: Normal and lateral critical Casimir forces between…
To study the critical Casimir force between chemically structured boundaries immersed in a binary mixture at its demixing transition, we consider a strip of Ising spins subject to alternating fixed spin boundary conditions. The system…
We develop a computational study of Casimir forces between three dimensional (3D) finite objects with an internal granular structure. The objects in the model consist of a finite arrangement of nanometer sized spherical particles having a…
We consider a nematic liquid crystal confined by two parallel planar interfaces, one being laterally homogeneous and the other provided by a substrate endowed with a periodic chemical stripe pattern. Based on continuum theory we analyze the…
We investigate the universal orientation-dependent interactions between non-spherical colloidal particles immersed in a critical solvent by studying the instructive paradigm of a needle embedded in bounded two-dimensional Ising models at…
We investigate the phase behaviour of mixtures of two populations of colloidal particles dispersed in a binary solvent system near its critical composition. The surfaces of particles are chemically modified to elicit a specific solvent…
We numerically test an experimentally realizable method for the extraction of the critical Casimir force based on its thermodynamic definition as the derivative of the excess free energy with respect to system size. Free energy differences…
The critical Casimir effect provides a thermodynamic analogue of the well-known quantum mechanical Casimir effect. It acts between two surfaces immersed in a critical binary liquid mixture, and results from the confinement of concentration…
Some time ago, Fisher and de Gennes pointed out that long-ranged correlations in a fluid close to its critical point Tc cause distinct forces between immersed colloidal particles which can even lead to flocculation [C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris B…
We study systems in which both long-ranged van der Waals and critical Casimir interactions are present. We study the interplay between these forces, as well as the {\it total} force (TF) between a spherical colloid particle and a thick…
We investigate the critical behavior of a near-critical fluid confined between two parallel plates in contact with a reservoir by calculating the order parameter profile and the Casimir amplitudes (for the force density and for the grand…
From experimental studies it is well-known that colloidal particles suspended in a near-critical binary solvent exhibit interesting aggregation phenomena, often associated with colloidal phase transitions, and assumed to be driven by…
The mapping between a classical length and inverse temperature as imaginary time provides a direct equivalence between the Casimir force of a classical system in $D$ dimensions and internal energy of a quantum system in $d$$=$$D$$-$$1$…
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the phase behavior of a binary mixture of colloids with opposite adsorption preferences in a critical solvent. As a result of the attractive and repulsive critical Casimir forces, the…
Using field-theoretical methods and exploiting conformal invariance, we study Casimir forces at tricritical points exerted by long-range fluctuations of the order-parameter field. Special attention is paid to the situation where the…
We present a field-theoretic study of the critical Casimir force of the Ising universality class in a $d$-dimensional ${L_\parallel^{d-1} \times L}$ slab geometry with a finite aspect ratio $\rho = L/L_\parallel$ above, at, and below $T_c$.…
The Casimir effect in quantum electrodynamics (QED) is perhaps the best-known example of fluctuation-induced long-ranged force acting on objects (conducting plates) immersed in a fluctuating medium (quantum electromagnetic field in vacuum).…
We experimentally demonstrate that critical Casimir forces in colloidal systems can be continuously tuned by the choice of boundary conditions. The interaction potential of a colloidal particle in a mixture of water and 2,6-lutidine has…
Recent experiments suggest that membranes of living cells are tuned close to a miscibility critical point in the 2D Ising universality class. We propose that one role for this proximity to criticality in live cells is to provide a conduit…
Critical Casimir forces can play an important role for applications in nano-science and nanotechnology, owing to their piconewton strength, nanometric action range, fine tunability as a function of temperature, and exquisite dependence on…
We have considered the critical Casimir force on a $^4$He film below and above the bulk $\lambda$ point. We have explored the role of fluctuations around the mean field theory in a perturbative manner, and have substantially improved the…