Published in Phys. Rev. B 99, 125403 (2019) Featured in Physics, Editors' Suggestion
Quantum fluctuations can induce a long-range force between macroscopic bodies – the Casimir effect. In recent years, people have devoted substantial efforts to alter the sign and strength of Casimir forces. The attractive Casimir force is unwelcome for nanodevices and colloids, because it can make nearby parts stick together. Here, by using chiral materials as an intervening “lubricant”, the authors propose a universal way to achieve repulsive, enhanced, and tunable Casimir forces.
English Links:
https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.125403
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/asu-tfi030419.php
Quantum fluctuations in vacuum can exert a dissipative force on moving objects, which is known as Casimir friction. Especially, a rotating particle in the vacuum will eventually slow down due to the dissipative Casimir friction. Here, we identify a dissipationless force by examining a rotating particle near a bi-isotropic media that generally breaks parity symmetry or/and time-reversal symmetry. The direction of the dissipationless vacuum force is always parallel with the rotating axis of the particle. We therefore call this dissipationless vacuum force the axial Casimir force.