Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.

Thursday, July 10, 2008
12:30 PM to 2 PM

Speaker: Felipe da Rosa, T-13

TOPIC: Casimir Repulsion and Metamaterials

Abstract
The possibility of Casimir repulsion between metals and certain magnetic materials is known since the seventies, but unfortunately Nature was not kind enough to supply us with the needed magnetic media. The rapidly evolving field of metamaterials (MMs), however, changed that picture, since by careful arrangements of micro and nanostructures it is possible to endow artificial media with significant magnetization at the right frequency range. In this talk I shall argue that, as promising as this may be, there are still significant challenges in the route to Casimir repulsion. The key point is that, being a broadband phenomenon, the Casimir force is not sufficiently affected if the magnetic activity is produced only in a narrow frequency range, which is usually the case. Metamaterials are also often anisotropic, which does not necessarily undermine the possibility of repulsion but makes things operationally harder, at least from the theoretical point of view. Finally, there is the possibility that, depending on the how magnetization is produced, even media with apparently all the right features may not be able to generate repulsion. This work was done in collaboration with Diego A.R. Dalvit and Peter W. Milloni.