Casimir microsphere diclusters and three-body effects in fluids

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.042516· OSTI ID:21544623

Varela, Jaime; McCauley, Alexander P ^[1]; Rodriguez, Alejandro W ^[2]; Johnson, Steven G ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
2. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
3. Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

Our previous paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 060401 (2010)] predicted that Casimir forces induced by the material-dispersion properties of certain dielectrics can give rise to stable configurations of objects. This phenomenon was illustrated via a dicluster configuration of nontouching objects consisting of two spheres immersed in a fluid and suspended against gravity above a plate. Here, we examine these predictions from the perspective of a practical experiment and consider the influence of nonadditive, three-body, and nonzero-temperature effects on the stability of the two spheres. We conclude that the presence of Brownian motion reduces the set of experimentally realizable silicon-teflon spherical diclusters to those consisting of layered microspheres, such as the hollow core (spherical shells) considered here.

• OSTI ID: 21544623
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.042516; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BROWNIAN MOVEMENT
CASIMIR EFFECT
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DISPERSIONS
FLUIDS
MICROSPHERES
SHELLS
SILICON
SPHERES
TEFLON
THREE-BODY PROBLEM
ELEMENTS
FLUORINATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
HALOGENATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
MATERIALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PLASTICS
POLYETHYLENES
POLYMERS
POLYOLEFINS
POLYTETRAFLUOROETHYLENE
SEMIMETALS
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS