Related papers: Wading through the void: Exploring quantum frictio…
Friction is usually a very complicated process. It appears in its most elementary form when two flat surfaces separated by vacuum gap are sliding relative to each other at zero Kelvin and the friction is generated by the relative movement…
An atom moving in a vacuum at constant velocity and parallel to a surface experiences a frictional force induced by the dissipative interaction with the quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. We show that the combination of…
Quantum fluctuations can induce a friction on a neutral but polarizable particle and cause it to radiate energy even if the particle is moving in free space filled with blackbody radiation, and is not in contact with or close to any surface…
Quantum friction, the electromagnetic fluctuation-induced frictional force decelerating an atom which moves past a macroscopic dielectric body, has so far eluded experimental evidence despite more than three decades of theoretical studies.…
We investigate the frictional forces due to quantum fluctuations acting on a small sphere rotating near a surface. At zero temperature, we find the frictional force near a surface to be several orders of magnitude larger than that for the…
We investigate the nonconservative open-system dynamics of an atom in a generic complex structured electromagnetic environment at temperature $T$. In such systems, when the atom moves along a translation-invariant axis of the environment, a…
In quantum theory the vacuum is defined as a state of minimum energy that is devoid of particles but still not completely empty. It is perhaps more surprising that its definition depends on the geometry of the system and on the trajectory…
Spatially separated bodies in relative motion through vacuum experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has so far eluded experimental detection due to its small magnitude and short range. Quantitative details…
We study the frictional torque acting on particles rotating in empty space. At zero temperature, vacuum friction transforms mechanical energy into light emission and produces particle heating. However, particle cooling relative to the…
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…
In the framework of linearized quantum gravity, we study the quantum gravitational interaction between two nonpointlike objects induced by fluctuating gravitomagnetic fields in vacuum. We find that, in addition to the quantum gravitational…
Zero-point quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum create the widely known London-van der Waals attractive force between two atoms. Recently, there was a revived interest in the interaction of rotating matter with the quantum…
We use general concepts of statistical mechanics to compute the quantum frictional force on an atom moving at constant velocity above a planar surface. We derive the zero-temperature frictional force using a non-equilibrium…
We introduce the concept of Casimir friction, i.e. friction due to quantum fluctuations. In this first article we describe the calculation of a constant torque, arising from the scattering of quantum fluctuations, on a dielectric rotating…
For more than 35 years theorists have studied quantum or Casimir friction, which occurs when two smooth bodies move transversely to each other, experiencing a frictional dissipative force due to quantum electromagnetic fluctuations, which…
An intriguing consequence of quantum field theory is that vacuum is not empty space; it is full of quantum fluctuating electromagnetic fields, or virtual photons, corresponding to their zero-point energy, even though the average number of…
Bodies in relative motion, spatially separated in vacuum, experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has eluded experimental detection so far due to its small magnitude and short range. Herein, we give…
Quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in empty space seem not to produce observable effects over the motion of a charged test particle. However, when a change in the background vacuum state is implemented, as for instance…
Quantum mechanics predicts the occurrence of random electromagnetic field fluctuations, or virtual photons, in vacuum. The exchange of virtual photons between two bodies in relative motion could lead to non-contact quantum vacuum friction…
Here, we develop a comprehensive quantum theory for the phenomenon of quantum friction. Based on a theory of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics for unstable systems, we calculate the quantum expectation of the friction force, and link the…