Repulsive vacuum-induced forces on a magnetic particle
Abstract
We study the possibility of obtaining a repulsive vacuum-induced force for a magnetic point particle near a surface. Considering the toy model of a particle with an electric-dipole transition and a large magnetic spin, we analyze the interplay between the repulsive magnetic-dipole and the attractive electric-dipole contributions to the total Casimir-Polder force. Particularly noting that the magnetic-dipole interaction is longer-ranged than the electric-dipole due to the difference in their respective characteristic transition frequencies, we find a regime where the repulsive magnetic contribution to the total force can potentially exceed the attractive electric part in magnitude for a sufficiently large spin. We analyze ways to further enhance the magnitude of the repulsive magnetic Casimir-Polder force for an excited particle, such as by preparing it in a "super-radiant" magnetic sub-level, and designing surface resonances close to the magnetic transition frequency.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1712.02385,
title = {Repulsive vacuum-induced forces on a magnetic particle},
author = {Kanupriya Sinha},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.02385},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
14 pages, 2 figures