卡西米尔效应浅析:机理、测量与意义

 如果让两块金属面板在真空中相对放置会发生什么情况呢?你的第一反应也许是“根本不会有任何事情发生”。而实际上,两块金属面板将由于真空的存在而相互吸引。这一令人惊奇的现象是由荷兰理论物理学家亨德里克·卡西米尔(HendrikCasimir)于1948年最先预言的,这种现象现在被称为卡西米尔效应。真空中两个金属面板之间的相互作用力被称为卡西米尔力。卡西米尔效应是一种有关真空涨落的量子现象。一、卡西米尔效应的机理在早期的经典力学中,真空的概念是很简单的。如果一个容器倒空其内的所有物质并将其温度降低到绝对零度,则容器内部所剩余的空间即为真空。     

粒子物理学与暴胀宇宙学(下)

量子涨落 根据量子场论,空虚的空间并不完全是空的.它充满着所有类型的物理场的量子涨落,这些涨落可视为具有各种可能波长的、沿各个可能方向运动的物理场的波动.如果这些场的值在某一宏观足够大的时间内的平均值为零,那么,充满着这些场的空间对我们来说就是空的,并将它称为真空. 在作指数膨胀的宇宙中,真空的构造要复杂得多.标量场　的所有真空涨落的波长随宇宙的膨胀而作指数增长.当某一涨落的波长变得大于H～(-1)时,由于场　的运动方程中大的摩擦项3H,使这一涨落停止传播,它的振幅被冻结在某一非零值初…)处哈勃常数的倒数近似于宇宙年…     

分回路中有电阻时电容耦合电路的量子涨落

从电阻产生的物理机理即电子与晶格的碰撞出发, 对两分回路中都有电阻时的电容耦合电路进行了量子化，并给出了分回路及耦合部分的量子涨落, 同时考虑了温度的影响. 关键词： 耦合电路 阻尼 量子涨落 声子     

介观RLC电路中电荷和电流的量子涨落

发展了一种将有源RLC电路量子化的方法,在此基础上,研究了真空态下介观RLC电路中电荷、电流的量子涨落,特别是研究了电阻对量子涨落的影响.     

有互感和电源的介观耦合电路的量子涨落

通过正则变换和幺正变换的方法研究了有互感和电源存在的情况下的介观电容耦合电路的量子涨落.结果表明电荷和电流的量子涨落与电源无关;互感的有无对涨落的影响很大;适当选取回路中电器件的参数,可以控制耦合系数K对涨落的影响.并且,每个回路中电荷和电流的量子涨落是相互制约的.     

用热场动力学理论研究介观电路的Wigner函数

利用热场动力学及相干热态表象理论,重构了有限温度下介观RLC电路的Wigner函数,研究了有限温度下介观RLC电路的量子涨落.借助于Weyl-Wigner理论讨论了有限温度下介观RLC电路Wigner函数的边缘分布,并进一步阐明了Wigner函数边缘分布统计平均的物理意义.结果表明: 有限温度下介观RLC电路中电荷和电流的量子涨落随着温度和电阻值的增加而增加,回路中的电荷和电流之间存在着压缩效应,这种量子效应是由于系统零点振动的涨落而引起的; 有限温度下介观RLC电路Wigner函数边缘分布的统计平均正好是储存在介观RLC电路中电容和电感上的能量.     

用热场动力学理论研究介观电路的Wigner函数

利用热场动力学及相干热态表象理论,重构了有限温度下介观RLC电路的Wigner函数,研究了有限温度下介观RLC电路的量子涨落.借助于Weyl-Wigner理论讨论了有限温度下介观RLC电路Wigner函数的边缘分布,并进一步阐明了Wigner函数边缘分布统计平均的物理意义.结果表明:有限温度下介观RLC电路中电荷和电流的量子涨落随着温度和电阻值的增加而增加,回路中的电荷和电流之间存在着压缩效应,这种量子效应是由于系统零点振动的涨落而引起的;有限温度下介观RLC电路Wigner函数边缘分布的统计平均正好是储存在介观RLC电路中电容和电感上的能量.     

石墨烯的量子电容

量子电容在半导体纳米材料和器件中是一个日趋重要的参数,测量和提取石墨烯的量子电容,不仅可以得到石墨烯的重要物理性质,而且对石墨烯晶体管的尺寸缩减行为具有重要指导意义.文章中采用简单工艺在石墨烯上制备出均匀超薄的高质量Y2O3栅介质,其等效栅氧厚度(EOT)可缩减至1.5nm,通过控制栅介质厚度的变化,精确测量并提取了石墨烯量子电容,其电容值在远离狄拉克点时与理论计算相符合;在此基础上,文章作者提出了基于电势涨落的量子电容微观模型,通过采用单一参数——电势涨落δV,可以定量地描述Dirac点附近的量子电容行为,从而在全能量范围内实现对石墨烯量子电容测量值的完美拟合,并得到了石墨烯的相关重要参数.进而,作者从量子电容的角度,探索了石墨烯晶体管的性能极限,并比较其相对于Ⅲ-Ⅴ族场效应晶体管的潜在优势.     

一种新的量子态──压缩态的特性及实验研究

在经典理论中,光场可以用电磁波来描述.利用波的振幅、频率、波矢及相位,我们可以讨论光在介质中的传播、光与物质的相互作用以及非线性光学效应等.但是,当涉及到光场的,光子统计、光子反束聚以及涨落等问题时[1],光场的经典理论就显得不够了,必须借助于光场的量子描述.在这种描述中,人们引人光子湮没算符符　及产生算符　,由此讨论量子涨落等一系列问题. 由量子理论可知,任何一对满足关系式的物理量,是一对共轭量.根据海森堡测不准原理,它们的方均涨落之积必须大于或等于某个常数,即光子湮没算符 的实部x1及虚部x2也是一对共轭量,它们分别…     

受激拉曼增益介质中的量子噪声特性研究

研究了三能级原子系综与相干控制场以及量子探测场的相互作用下的受激拉曼系统.运用量子理论推导出了该受激拉曼系统中由于量子场真空涨落引起的量子噪声以及受激散射的量子化光场噪声谱,并且数值计算了注入拥有非经典涨落的量子探测场,真空涨落所引起的量子噪声谱. 关键词： 受激拉曼增益 量子噪声 噪声谱     

On the quantum Nyquist formula

Yu.L. Klimontovich’s assertion on the incorrectness of the quantum Nyquist formula is discussed. It is shown that, in quantum physics, Rytov’s fluctuation formula, the Casimir force theory as treated by E.M. Lifshitz, and the quantum Nyquist formula are all incorrect, as they are united by a common basis.     

Effect of the electric current on the Casimir force between graphene sheets

The dependence of the thermal component of the Casimir force and Casimir friction between graphene sheets on the drift velocity of charge carriers in one of the sheets has been analyzed. It has been shown that the drift motion results in the measurable change in the thermal Casimir force owing to the Doppler effect. The thermal Casimir force, as well as Casimir friction, increases strongly in the case of resonant photon tunneling, when the energy of an emitted photon coincides with the excitation energy of an electron-hole pair. In the case of resonant photon tunneling, the dominant contribution to the Casimir friction even at temperatures above room temperature comes from quantum friction caused by quantum fluctuations. Quantum friction can be detected in an experiment on the friction drag between graphene sheets in a high electric field.     

Experiment and theory in the Casimir effect

Casimir effect is the attractive force which acts between two plane parallel, closely spaced, uncharged, metallic plates in vacuum. This phenomenon was predicted theoretically in 1948 and reliably investigated experimentally only in recent years. In fact, the Casimir force is similar to the familiar van der Waals force in the case of relatively large separations when the relativistic effects come into play. We review the most important experiments on measuring the Casimir force by means of torsion pendulum, atomic force microscope and micromechanical torsional oscillator. Special attention is paid to the puzzle of the thermal Casimir force, i.e. to the apparent violation of the third law of thermodynamics when the Lifshitz theory of dispersion forces is applied to real metals. Thereafter we discuss the role of the Casimir force in nanosystems including the stiction phenomenon, actuators, and interaction of hydrogen atoms with carbon nanotubes. The applications of the Casimir effect for constraining predictions of extra-dimensional unification schemes and other physics beyond the standard model are also considered.     

Thermal Casimir effect in ideal metal rectangular boxes

The thermal Casimir effect in ideal metal rectangular boxes is considered using the method of zeta functional regularization. A renormalization procedure is suggested which provides the finite expression for the Casimir free energy in any restricted quantization volume. This expression satisfies the classical limit at high temperature and leads to zero thermal Casimir force for systems with infinite characteristic dimensions. In the case of two parallel ideal metal planes the results, as derived previously using thermal quantum field theory in Matsubara formulation and other methods, are reproduced starting from the expression obtained. It is shown that for rectangular boxes the temperature-dependent contribution to the electromagnetic Casimir force can be both positive and negative depending on side lengths. Numerical computations of the scalar and electromagnetic Casimir free energy and force are performed for cubes.     

Mesoscopic Casimir forces in quantum vacuum

Traditionally, it is assumed that the Casimir vacuum pressure does not depend on the ultraviolet cutoff. There are, however, some arguments that the effect actually depends on the regularization procedure and thus on trans-Planckian physics. We provide the condensed matter example where the Casimir forces do explicitly depend on microscopic (correspondingly trans-Planckian) physics due to the mesoscopic finite-N effects, where N is the number of bare particles in condensed matter (or correspondingly the number of elements comprising the quantum vacuum). The finite-N effects lead to mesoscopic fluctuations of the vacuum pressure. The amplitude of the mesoscopic fluctuations of the Casimir force in a system with linear dimension L is a factor of N ^1/3～L/a _p larger than the traditional value of the Casimir force given by effective theory, where a _p =?/p _p is the interatomic distance which plays the role of the Planck length.     

On the Relation Between Casimir Forces and Bulk Correlations

Within a microscopic approach we show that in the case of an ideal quantum gas enclosed in a slit the Casimir force can be simply expressed in terms of the bulk one-particle density matrix. The corresponding formula, which holds both for bosons and fermions, allows to relate the range of the Casimir force to the bulk correlation length. The low-temperature behavior of the Casimir forces is derived.     

A Gedanken Spacecraft that Operates Using the Quantum Vacuum (Dynamic Casimir Effect)

Conventional rockets are not a suitable technology for interstellar missions. Chemical rockets require a very large weight of propellant, travel very slowly compared to light speed, and require significant energy to maintain operation over periods of years. For example, the 722 kg Voyager spacecraft required 13,600 kg of propellant to launch and would take about 80,000 years to reach the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, about 4.3 light years away. There have been various attempts at developing ideas on which one might base a spacecraft that would permit interstellar travel, such as spacewarps. In this paper we consider another suggestion from science fiction and explore how the quantum vacuum might be utilized in the creation of a novel spacecraft. The spacecraft is based on the dynamic Casimir effect, in which electromagnetic radiation is emitted when an uncharged mirror is properly accelerated in vacuum. The radiative reaction produces a dissipative force on the mirror that tends to resist the acceleration of the mirror. This force can be used to accelerate a spacecraft attached to the mirror. We also show that, in principle, one could obtain the power to operate the accelerated mirror in such a spacecraft using energy extracted from the quantum vacuum using the standard Casimir effect with a parallel plate geometry. Unfortunately the method as currently conceived generates a miniscule thrust, and is no more practical than a spacewarp, yet it does provide an interesting demonstration of our current understanding of the physics of the quantized electromagnetic field in vacuum.     

Attractive and repulsive Casimir vacuum energy with general boundary conditions

The infrared behaviour of quantum field theories confined in bounded domains is strongly dependent on the shape and structure of space boundaries. The most significant physical effect arises in the behaviour of the vacuum energy. The Casimir energy can be attractive or repulsive depending on the nature of the boundary. We calculate the vacuum energy for a massless scalar field confined between two homogeneous parallel plates with the most general type of boundary conditions depending on four parameters. The analysis provides a powerful method to identify which boundary conditions generate attractive or repulsive Casimir forces between the plates. In the interface between both regimes we find a very interesting family of boundary conditions which do not induce any type of Casimir force. We also show that the attractive regime holds far beyond identical boundary conditions for the two plates required by the Kenneth–Klich theorem and that the strongest attractive Casimir force appears for periodic boundary conditions whereas the strongest repulsive Casimir force corresponds to anti-periodic boundary conditions. Most of the analysed boundary conditions are new and some of them can be physically implemented with metamaterials.     

Long-range magnetic interaction due to the Casimir effect

The zero-point quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in vacuum are known to give rise to a long-range attractive force between metal plates (Casimir effect). For ferromagnetic layers separated by vacuum, it is shown that the interplay of the Casimir effect and of the magneto-optical Kerr effect gives rise to a long-range magnetic interaction. The Casimir magnetic force is found to decay as D-1 in the limit of short distances, and as D-5 in the limit of long distances. Explicit expressions for realistic systems are given in the large- and small-distance limits. An experimental test of the Casimir magnetic interaction is proposed.     

The Casimir effect for fields with arbitrary spin

The Casimir force arises when a quantum field is confined between objects that apply boundary conditions to it. In a recent paper we used the two-spinor calculus to derive boundary conditions applicable to fields with arbitrary spin in the presence of perfectly reflecting surfaces. Here we use these general boundary conditions to investigate the Casimir force between two parallel perfectly reflecting plates for fields up to spin-2. We use the two-spinor calculus formalism to present a unified calculation of well-known results for spin-1/2 (Dirac) and spin-1 (Maxwell) fields. We then use our unified framework to derive new results for the spin-3/2 and spin-2 fields, which turn out to be the same as those for spin-1/2 and spin-1. This is part of a broader conclusion that there are only two different Casimir forces for perfectly reflecting plates—one associated with fermions and the other with bosons.