Related papers: Non-equilibrium electromagnetic fluctuations: Heat…
In this paper, dedicated to the career of Tom Erber, we consider the Casimir interaction between weakly coupled bodies at nonzero temperature. For the case of semitransparent bodies, that is, ones described by delta-function potentials, we…
We investigate the phenomenon of quantum radiation - i.e. the conversion of (virtual) quantum fluctuations into (real) particles induced by dynamical external conditions - for an initial thermal equilibrium state. For a resonantly vibrating…
We develop an exact method for computing the Casimir energy between arbitrary compact objects, both with boundary conditions for a scalar field and dielectrics or perfect conductors for the electromagnetic field. The energy is obtained as…
We find the exact Casimir force between a plate and a cylinder, a geometry intermediate between parallel plates, where the force is known exactly, and the plate--sphere, where it is known at large separations. The force has an unexpectedly…
Thermodynamic principles are often deceptively simple and yet surprisingly powerful. We show how a simple rule, such as the net flow of energy in and out of a moving atom under nonequilibrium steady state condition, can expose the…
We predict that the radiative heat-transfer rate between a cylinder and a perforated surface depends non-monotonically on their separation. This anomalous behavior, which arises due to near-field effects, is explained using a heuristic…
We study the mechanical fluctuations of a micrometer sized silicon cantilever subjected to a strong heat flow, thus having a highly non-uniform local temperature. In this non-equilibrium steady state, we show that fluctuations are…
We present a simple formalism for the evaluation of the Casimir energy for two spheres and a sphere and a plane, in case of a scalar fluctuating field, valid at any separations. We compare the exact results with various approximation…
We study the fluctuation-induced, time-dependent force between two plates immersed in a fluid driven out of equilibrium mechanically by harmonic vibrations of one of the plates. Considering a simple Langevin dynamics for the fluid, we…
We exploit fluctuational electrodynamics to present trace expressions for the torque experienced by arbitrary objects in a passive, non-absorbing, rotationally invariant background environment. Specializing to a single object, this…
The temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder interaction addresses fundamental issues for understanding vacuum and thermal fluctuations. It is highly sensitive to surface waves which, in the near field, govern the thermal emission of a…
An electromagnetic theory of thermal radiation is outlined, based on the fluctuation electrodynamics of Rytov and co-workers. We discuss the basic concepts and the status of different approximations. The physical content is illustrated with…
A new general expression is derived for the fluctuating electromagnetic field outside a metal surface, in terms of its surface impedance. It provides a generalization to real metals of Lifshitz theory of molecular interactions between…
The Casimir force can be understood as resulting from the radiation pressure exerted by the vacuum fluctuations reflected by boundaries. We extend this local formulation to the case of partially transmitting boundaries by introducing…
Casimir interactions (due to the massless scalar field fluctuations) of two surfaces which are close to each other are studied. After a brief general presentation, explicit calculations for co-axial cylinders, co-centric spheres and…
The physical origin of the Casimir force is connected with the existence of zero-point and thermal fluctuations. The Casimir effect is very general and finds applications in various fields of physics. This review is limited to the rapid…
We review the theory of the Casimir effect using scattering techniques. After years of theoretical efforts, this formalism is now largely mastered so that the accuracy of theory-experiment comparisons is determined by the level of precision…
Biologically driven non-equilibrium fluctuations are often characterized by their non-Gaussianity or by an "effective temperature", which is frequency dependent and higher than the ambient temperature. We address these two measures…
Noncommutativity of observables is a central feature of quantum physics. It plays a fundamental role in the formulation of the uncertainty principle for complementary variables and strongly affects the laws of thermodynamics for systems…
The meaning of temperature in nonequilibrium thermodynamics is considered by using a forced harmonic oscillator in a heat bath, where we have two effective temperatures for the position and the momentum, respectively. We invent a concrete…