Related papers: Does light exert Abraham's force in a transparent …
We establish strict upper limits for the Casimir interaction between multilayered structures of arbitrary dielectric or diamagnetic materials. We discuss the appearance of different power laws due to frequency-dependent material constants.…
The refraction of light by dispersion-free dielectric media can be modeled using well-localized macroscopic wave packets, enabling a description in terms of pseudo-particles. This approach is often used in thought experiments to illustrate…
We theoretically investigate the optical force exerted on an isotropic particle illuminated by a superposition of plane waves. We derive explicit analytical expressions for the exerted force up to quadrupolar polarizabilities. Based on…
We review studies of the fluctuations of light made accessible by the invention of the laser and the strong interactions realized in cavity QED experiments. Photon antibunching advocating the discrete (particles), is contrasted with…
The accelerated expansion of the universe motivates a wide class of scalar field theories that modify gravity on large scales. In regions where the weak field limit of General Relativity has been confirmed by experiment, such theories need…
We investigate one of the consequences of the three competing models describing the mechanical interaction of light with a dielectric medium. According to both the Abraham and Minkowski models the time-averaged force density is zero inside…
Optical fields can induce forces between microscopic objects, thus giving rise to new structures of matter. We study theoretically these optical forces between two spheres, either isolated in water, or in presence of a flat dielectric…
Even though the concept has evolved and if the designation as aether is improperly regarded as outdated, nobody today considers that the vacuum is empty. However, the nature and the properties of the substratum, which permeates the entire…
Invisibility cloaks of light, which used to be confined to the imagination, have now been turned into a scientific reality, thanks to the enabling theoretical tools of transformation optics and conformal mapping. Inspired by those…
An upper limit on the Casimir force is found using the dielectric functions of perfect crystalline materials which depend only on well defined material constants. The force measured with the atomic force microscope is larger than this limit…
Abraham-Minkowski dilemma concerning the momentum of light within dielectric materials has persisted over 100 years[1]-[2] and conflicting experiments were reported until recently[3]-[4]. We perform a reversed Fizeau experiment to test the…
Indirect constraints on the intensity of the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) were provided by recent studies of extragalactic sources emitting sub-TeV to multi-TeV photons. These constraints are provided thanks to the absorption of…
Shining light through walls? At first glance this sounds crazy. However, very feeble gravitational and electroweak effects allow for this exotic possibility. Unfortunately, with present and near future technologies the opportunity to…
A number of experiments are currently underway on antimatter, particularly anti-hydrogen, to test whether the fundamental interactions behave the same way as for matter. Here we present a simple argument showing that a bound on a difference…
Novel optical phenomena, including electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, superluminal light propagation, have recently been demonstrated in diverse physical implementations. These phenomena are challenging to realize in…
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…
Observations of a long-lasting Gamma-ray burst, one that has the brightest optical counterpart yet discovered, challenge theoretical understanding of these bursts but may enhance their usefulness as cosmic probes.
The evidence for the existence of dark matter in the universe is reviewed. A general picture emerges, where both baryonic and non-baryonic dark matter is needed to explain current observations. In particular, a wealth of observational…
We suggest a novel mechanism to induce the motion of a chiral material body towards an optical source. Our solution is based on the interference between a chiral light beam and its reflection on an opaque mirror. Surprisingly, it is…
For the past few decades, structured light has been gaining popularity across various research fields. Its fascinating properties have been exploited for both previously unforeseen and established applications from new perspectives. Crucial…