Constraints on stable equilibria with fluctuation-induced (Casimir)
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Rahi-2010-Constraints on Stabl.pdf
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Author(s)
Rahi, Sahand Jamal
Kardar, Mehran
Date Issued
August 2010
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Rahi, Sahand Jamal. et al. "Constraints on Stable Equilibria with Fluctuation-Induced (Casimir) Forces." Physical Review Letters 105.7 (2010): 070404. © 2010 The American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We examine whether fluctuation-induced forces can lead to stable levitation. First, we analyze a collection of classical objects at finite temperature that contain fixed and mobile charges and show that any arrangement in space is unstable to small perturbations in position. This extends Earnshaw’s theorem for electrostatics by including thermal fluctuations of internal charges. Quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are responsible for Casimir or van der Waals interactions. Neglecting permeabilities, we find that any equilibrium position of items subject to such forces is also unstable if the permittivities of all objects are higher or lower than that of the enveloping medium, the former being the generic case for ordinary materials in vacuum.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.070404
