Related papers: Fluctuation-induced interactions in nematics with …
We investigate the effect of polydispersity on fluctuation-induced interactions between colloids trapped at a fluid interface. Using the scattering-matrix formalism, we calculate the interaction energy in two- and three-body systems under…
Nematic liquid crystals at rough and fluctuating interfaces are analyzed within the Frank elastic theory and the Landau-de Gennes theory. We study specifically interfaces that locally favor planar anchoring. In the first part we reconsider…
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…
If a fluctuating medium is confined, the ensuing perturbation of its fluctuation spectrum generates Casimir-like effective forces acting on its confining surfaces. Near a continuous phase transition of such a medium the corresponding order…
We investigate the effect of monopolar charge disorder on the classical fluctuation-induced interactions between randomly charged net-neutral dielectric slabs and discuss various generalizations of recent results (A. Naji et al., Phys. Rev.…
Randomly charged net-neutral dielectric slabs are shown to interact across a featureless dielectric continuum with long-range electrostatic forces that scale with the statistical variance of their quenched random charge distribution and…
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).…
In the mean field approximation, we evaluate the temperature dependence of the anchoring energy strength of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with a solid substrate due to thermal fluctuations. Our study is limited to the weak anchoring…
We analyze the effective potential for nanoparticles trapped at a fluid interface within a simple model which incorporates surface and line tensions as well as a thermal average over interface fluctuations (capillary waves). For a single…
Vacuum fluctuations provide a fundamental source of dissipation for systems coupled to quantum fields by radiation pressure. In the dynamical Casimir effect, accelerating neutral bodies in free space give rise to the emission of real…
We study two dimensional tactoids in nematic liquid crystals by using a $\mathbf{Q}$-tensor representation. A bulk free energy of the Maier-Saupe form with eigenvalue constraints on $\mathbf{Q}$, plus elastic terms up to cubic order in…
We study the interface between a solid trapped within a bath of liquid by a suitably shaped non-uniform external potential. Such a potential may be constructed using lasers, external electric or magnetic fields or a surface template. We…
We investigate the equilibrium properties of a colloidal solution in contact with a soft interface. As a result of symmetry breaking, surface effects are generally prevailing in confined colloidal systems. In this Letter, particular…
A self-interacting polymer can undergo an orientational ordering transition, depending on the magnitude of the nematic interaction. The effect of embedding such a polymer into a flexible surface on this transition is studied on the…
The Casimir interaction is induced by electromagnetic fluctuations between objects and it is strongly dependent upon the electronic and optical properties of the materials making up the objects. Here we investigate this ubiquitous…
In any medium there are fluctuations due to temperature or due to the quantum nature of its constituents. If a material body is immersed into such a medium, its shape and the properties of its constituents modify the properties of the…
We introduce a coarse-grained description of the surface energy of a nematic liquid crystal. The thermal fluctuations of the nematic director close to the surface renormalize at macroscopic scales the bare surface potential in a…
We study jammed near-crystalline materials composed of frictionless spheres in three dimensions. We analyze the fluctuations in positions and forces produced by small polydispersity in particle sizes. We generalize a recently developed…
Vacuum fluctuations are a fundamental and irremovable property of a quantized electromagnetic field. These fluctuations are the cause of the Casimir effect -- mutual attraction of two electrically neutral metallic plates in vacuum in the…
We calculate the effective force mediated by thermally excited capillary waves between spherical or disklike colloids trapped at a fluid interface. This Casimir type interaction is shown to depend sensitively on the boundary conditions…