Casimir effect in the nonequilibrium steady state of a quantum spin chain
- Grupo de Fisica Teorica de Materia Condensada, Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de los Andes, A. A. 4976, Bogota (Colombia)
- Institute for Theoretical Physics-HAS, Eoetvoes University, Pazmany Peter setany 1/a, 1117 Budapest (Hungary)
- Laboratoire Matiere et Systemes Complexes, CNRS UMR 7057, Universite Paris Diderot-Paris 7, 10 rue Alice Domon et Leonie Duquet, 75205 Paris cedex 13 (France)
We present a fully microscopics-based calculation of the Casimir effect in a nonequilibrium system, namely, an energy-flux-driven quantum XX chain. The force between the walls (transverse-field impurities) is calculated in a nonequilibrium steady state which is prepared by letting the system evolve from an initial state with the two halves of the chain prepared at equilibrium at different temperatures. The steady state emerging in the large-time limit is homogeneous but carries an energy flux. The Casimir force in this nonequilibrium state is calculated analytically in the limit when the transverse fields are small. We find that the the Casimir force range is reduced compared to the equilibrium case, and suggest that the reason for this is the reduction of fluctuations in the flux-carrying steady state.
- OSTI ID:
- 21408824
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 81, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.81.052512; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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