Results from electrostatic calibrations for measuring the Casimir force in the cylinder-plane geometry

Journal Article · Sat May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.81.052115· OSTI ID:21413362

Wei, Q ^[1]; Dalvit, D A. R. ^[2]; Lombardo, F C; Mazzitelli, F D ^[3]; Onofrio, R ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 (United States)
2. Theoretical Division, MS B213, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. Departamento de Fisica J.J. Giambiagi, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellon 1, 1428 Buenos Aires (Argentina)
4. Dipartimento di Fisica 'Galileo Galilei', Universita di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, Padova I-35131 (Italy)

We report on measurements performed on an apparatus aimed to study the Casimir force in the cylinder-plane configuration. The electrostatic calibrations evidence anomalous behaviors in the dependence of the electrostatic force and the minimizing potential upon distance. We discuss analogies and differences of these anomalies with respect to those already observed in the sphere-plane configuration. At the smallest explored distances we observe frequency shifts of non-Coulombian nature preventing the measurement of the Casimir force in the same range. We also report on measurements performed in the parallel-plane configuration, showing that the dependence on distance of the minimizing potential, if present at all, is milder than in the sphere-plane or cylinder-plane geometries. General considerations on the interplay between the distance-dependent minimizing potential and the precision of Casimir force measurements in the range relevant to detect the thermal corrections for all geometries are finally reported.

• OSTI ID: 21413362
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 81; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CALIBRATION
CASIMIR EFFECT
CONFIGURATION
CYLINDERS
DISTANCE
GEOMETRY
MATHEMATICS