Force on a moving object in an ideal quantum gas
General Physics
2023-10-25 v1
Abstract
We consider a heavy external object moving in an ideal gas of light particles. Collisions with the gas particles transfer momentum to the object, leading to a force that is proportional to the object's velocity but in the opposite direction. In an ideal classical gas at temperature , the force acting on the object is proportional to . Quantum statistics causes a deviation from the -dependence and shows that the force scales with at low temperatures. At , the force vanishes in a Bose gas but is finite in a Fermi gas.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2307.13276,
title = {Force on a moving object in an ideal quantum gas},
author = {Wittaya Kanchanapusakit and Pattarapon Tanalikhit},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.13276},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
11 pages, 4 figures; This material has been submitted to/accepted by the American Journal of Physics. After it is published, it will be found at (https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajps)