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Auteurs principaux: Spreng, Benjamin, Munday, Jeremy N.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02184
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author Spreng, Benjamin
Munday, Jeremy N.
author_facet Spreng, Benjamin
Munday, Jeremy N.
contents The Casimir effect, originating from quantum and thermal fluctuations, is well known for inducing forces between closely spaced surfaces. When these surfaces are optically anisotropic, these interactions can produce a Casimir torque that rotates the surfaces relative to each other. We investigate, for the first time, the influence of thermal fluctuations on the Casimir torque between birefringent plates. Our results reveal that thermal modes significantly diminish the torque, with reductions up to 2 orders of magnitude for highly birefringent materials. Temperature is also shown to alter the angular dependence of the torque, significantly deviating from the typical sinusoidal behavior, and becomes particularly important at large separations that exceed the thermal wavelength. Finally, we demonstrate that systems of dissimilar birefringent plates that exhibit a distance-dependent reversal in the torque's direction can enable precise control of the torque's magnitude and sign through temperature manipulation. These findings advance our understanding of quantum and thermal fluctuation interplay and provide a framework for designing innovative nanoscale sensors and devices leveraging Casimir torque phenomena.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_02184
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermal Effects in the Casimir Torque between Birefringent Plates
Spreng, Benjamin
Munday, Jeremy N.
Quantum Physics
The Casimir effect, originating from quantum and thermal fluctuations, is well known for inducing forces between closely spaced surfaces. When these surfaces are optically anisotropic, these interactions can produce a Casimir torque that rotates the surfaces relative to each other. We investigate, for the first time, the influence of thermal fluctuations on the Casimir torque between birefringent plates. Our results reveal that thermal modes significantly diminish the torque, with reductions up to 2 orders of magnitude for highly birefringent materials. Temperature is also shown to alter the angular dependence of the torque, significantly deviating from the typical sinusoidal behavior, and becomes particularly important at large separations that exceed the thermal wavelength. Finally, we demonstrate that systems of dissimilar birefringent plates that exhibit a distance-dependent reversal in the torque's direction can enable precise control of the torque's magnitude and sign through temperature manipulation. These findings advance our understanding of quantum and thermal fluctuation interplay and provide a framework for designing innovative nanoscale sensors and devices leveraging Casimir torque phenomena.
title Thermal Effects in the Casimir Torque between Birefringent Plates
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02184