Fluctuation-Induced Casimir Forces in Granular Fluids
Statistical Mechanics
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
We have numerically investigated the behavior of driven non-cohesive granular media and found that two fixed large intruder particles, immersed in a sea of small particles, experience, in addition to a short range depletion force, a long range repulsive force. The observed long range interaction is fluctuation-induced and we propose a mechanism similar to the Casimir effect that generates it: the hydrodynamic fluctuations are geometrically confined between the intruders, producing an unbalanced renormalized pressure. An estimation based on computing the possible Fourier modes explains the repulsive force and is in qualitative agreement with the simulations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0604210,
title = {Fluctuation-Induced Casimir Forces in Granular Fluids},
author = {C. Cattuto and R. Brito and U. Marini Bettolo Marconi and F. Nori and R. Soto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0604210},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. Letters