Center for Nonlinear Studies                Mark Kac Lectures                    Los Alamos, April 2015

Fluctuation-Induced Phenomena

Mehran Kardar

G. Bimonte, T. Emig, N. Graham, R. Jaffe

Jamal Rahi, Mohammad Maghrebi, ...

Lec. 1- A Plethora of Fluctuation-Induced Interactions

I.      Casimir force in QED: Theory & Experiment                                          

II.     Casimir force of Critical fluctuations: Oil-water mixtures                                           

III.    Casimir force of Goldstone modes: Superfluid films  

IV .   Membranes inclusions: Forces between inclusions

V.     Scale-Invariant Shapes: Wedges and cones      

VI.   Entropic Force on Polymers: Cone-tip attached polymer

yellow ballPhantom polymers

yellow ballSelf-avoiding polymers

VII.  Summary1

Lec. 2- Levitation by Casimir Forces?

I.        Casimir force: Stiction                                            

II.       Repulsion/Levitation? Boundary effects (fluids, meta-materials, ...) 

III.     Repulsion/Levitation? Shapes (spheres, pistons, ...) 

IV.     Earnshaw's theorem in electrostatics and for fluctuation-induced forces

V.      Membranes: Conformal field theory for Forces between inclusions, stability

VI.     Thermal disequilibrium: Heat radiation and resonances

VII.   Summary2

Lec. 3- Non-equilibrium Fluctuation Phenomena

I.        Thermal disequilibrium: Near field heat transfer, anisotropy              

II.       Thermal disequilibrium: Force, levitation and propulsion 

III.     Dynamic phenomena: Rotating object

IV.     Hydrodynamic fluctuations: FIF with diffusive current

V.      Active matter pressure: surfaces matter

VI.    Can Casimir measure the shape of a drum?

VII.   Summary3