Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT09)


Book Description

Casimir forces between spheres and loop integrals / J. Babington -- Analytic corrections to the electromagnetic Casimir interaction between a sphere and a plate at short distances / M. Bordag and V. Nikolaev -- Casimir physics : geometry, shape and material / T. Emig -- Semitransparent pistons / P. Morales and K. Kirsten -- Using boundary methods to compute the Casimir energy / F.C. Lombardo, F.D. Mazzitelli and P.I. Villar -- Electromagnetic non-contact gears : prelude / P. Parashar [und weitere] -- The scattering approach to the Casimir force / S. Reynaud [und weitere] -- Scalar Casimir energies for separable coordinate systems : application to semi-transparent planes in an annulus / J. Wagner, K.A. Milton and K. Kirsten -- Demonstrating the strong geometry dependence of the Casimir force on a surface with deep, nanoscale corrugations / H.B. Chan [und weitere] -- New results for the Casimir interaction : sample characterization and low temperature measurements / R.S. Decca, D. Lopez and E. Osquiguil -- Casimir force experiments in air : two birds with one stone / S. De Man [und weitere] -- Experimental features of the recent lateral Casimir force measurement / H.-C. Chiu and U. Mohideen -- Lateral Casimir-Polder force measurement using Bose Einstein condensates / G.A. Moreno -- Repulsive Casimir and van der Waals forces : from measurements to future technologies / J.N. Munday and F. Capasso -- Macroscopic quantum vacuum and microscopic gravitation / R. Onofrio -- The PVLAS experiment and its results : probing the quantum vacuum with polarized light and magnetic fields / F. Della Valle [und weitere] -- Thermal Casimir effect for conducting plates and the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem / G. Bimonte -- Electromagnetic Casimir effect in wedge geometry and the energy-momentum tensor in media / I. Brevik, S.A. Ellingsen and K.A. Milton -- Casimir-Polder potential in thermal non-equilibrium / S.A. Ellingsen [und weitere] -- Geometry-temperature interplay in the Casimir effect / H. Gies and A. Weber -- Thermal effects in the magnetic Casimir-Polder interaction / H. Haakh, F. Intravaia and C. Henkel -- Mode contributions to the Casimir effect / F. Intravaia and C. Henkel -- Thermal Casimir force between magnetic materials / G.L. Klimchitskaya, B. Geyer and V.M. Mostepanenko -- The Casimir effect and the foundations of statistical physics / V.M. Mostepanenko and G.L. Klimchitskaya -- Casimir-Lifshitz forces and entropy / L.P. Pitaevskii -- The thermal Casimir effect : saturation / B.E. Sernelius -- Finite temperature Casimir effect in the presence of extra dimensions / L.P. Teo and K. Kirsten -- The role of magnetoplasmons in Casimir force calculations / R. Esquivel-Sirvent [und weitere] -- Suspended graphene films and their Casimir interaction with ideal conductor / I.V. Fialkovsky -- Casimir energy of finite width mirrors : renormalization, self-interaction limit and Lifshitz formula / I.V. Fialkovsky, V.N. Markov and Yu. M. Pis'mak -- Role of surface states in the Casimir force between semiconducting films / M. Govoni, C. Calandra and A. Benassi -- On the Casimir entropy between "perfect crystals" / C. Henkel and F. Intravaia -- Theory of the Casimir effect for gratings / V.N. Marachevsky




Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT09)


Book Description

QFEXT is the leading international conference held every two years, highlighting progress in quantum vacuum energy phenomena, the Casimir effect, and related topics, both experimentally and theoretically. Most of the key players in the field are expected to be present. Thus the proceedings will be the definitive source of information on this field, which is playing an increasingly important role in nanotechnology and in understanding fundamental issues in physics such as renormalization and in the search for new physics such as fifth forces and dark energy. Proceedings of previous conferences in this series have been important, and like the conferences they summarize, have led to major progress in the two subsequent years. This is because, the fundamental aspects of quantum field theory; applications of all branches of physics, chemistry, nanoscience, and astrophysics; mathematical and experimental techniques described have wide applications and all leading groups and scientists working in this field will be represented.




Dynamics of Josephson Junctions and Circuits


Book Description

"This monograph is intended to give a relatively complete review of Josephson junction dynamics as it stands in the mid-1980's. The main idea of the author is to present the reader with as many useful results as possible by the simplest means, rather than to demonstrate theoretical muscle. This is why almost all the topics requiring elaborate techniques for their analysis are shifted to the ends of the chapters and the most complex chapters, to the end of the book. Topics which are of relatively minor importance for further discussion are mainly presented in the form of 'problems' at the end of the sections." -- from Preface.




The Casimir Effect


Book Description

In its simplest manifestation, the Casimir effect is a quantum force of attraction between two parallel uncharged conducting plates. More generally, it refers to the interaction OCo which may be either attractive or repulsive OCo between material bodies due to quantum fluctuations in whatever fields are relevant. It is a local version of the van der Waals force between molecules. Its sweep ranges from perhaps its being the origin of the cosmological constant to its being responsible for the confinement of quarks. This monograph develops the theory of such forces, based primarily on physically transparent Green''s function techniques, and makes applications from quarks to the cosmos, as well as observable consequences in condensed matter systems. It is aimed at graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics, quantum field theory, and applied mathematics. Contents: Introduction to the Casimir Effect; Casimir Force Between Parallel Plates; Casimir Force Between Parallel Dielectrics; Casimir Effect with Perfect Spherical; The Casimir Effect of a Dielectric Ball: The Equivalence of the Casimir Effect and van der Waals Forces; Application to Hadronic Physics: Zero-Point Energy in the Bag Model; Casimir Effect in Cylindrical Geometries; Casimir Effect in Two Dimensions: The Maxwell-Chern-Simons Casimir Effect; Casimir Effect on a D -dimensional Sphere; Cosmological Implications of the Casimir Effect; Local Effects; Sonoluminescene and the Dynamical Casimir Effect; Radiative Corrections to the Casimir Effect; Conclusions and Outlook; Appendices: Relation of Contour Integral Method to Green''s Function Approach; Casimir Effect for a Closed String. Readership: High-energy, condensed-matter and nuclear physicists."




Nanotechnology and Photovoltaic Devices


Book Description

Silicon is an abundant element and is produced in large quantities for the electronic industry. The falling price of this commodity also feeds the growth of solar photovoltaics (PV). However, solar cells (SCs) based on bulk semiconductors have quite limited maximum attainable performance. Therefore, new principles and materials are being investigat




Under the Spell of the Gauge Principle


Book Description

Few people studying Gauge Field Theory need to be convinced of the importance of the work of 't Hooft. This volume contains a selection of articles and review topics covering his well-known studies on the renormalization of non-Abelian gauge theorems, topological phenomena in gauge field theory and thoughts on the role of black holes in quantum gravity.The chapters are tied together by thoughtful commentaries which provide a background and the illumination of hindsight ? together they form a clear and coherent picture of the physical and theoretical importance of gauge theories and the gauge principle. This book is ideal for students and researchers.Gerard 't Hooft is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has taught at Harvard, SLAC and Caltech prior to his present position. Other distinguished honors include being awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Chicago, Wolf Prize of the State of Israel, Pius XI Medal (Vatican), and the Lorentz Medal (KNAW, Amsterdam).




The Whys of Subnuclear Physics


Book Description

From 23 July to 10 August 1977 a group of 125 physicists from 72 laboratories of 20 countries met in Erice to attend the 15th Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics. The countries represented at the School were: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Venezuela. The School was sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Public Education (MPI), the Italian Ministry of Scientific and Technologi cal Research (MRST) , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Regional Sicilian Government (ERS) and the Heizmann Institute of Science. The School was very exciting due to the impressive number of frontier problems which were discussed. Being the 15th year of the School, it was decided to review all outstanding "Whys". At various stages of my work I have enjoyed the collaboration of many friends whose contributions have been extremely important for the School and are highly appreciated. I would like to thank Dr.A. Gabriele, Ms.S. McGarry, Mr. and Mrs. S. Newman, Ms.P. Savalli and Ms.M. Zaini for the general scientific and administrative work. Finally, I would like to thank most warmly all those ~n Erice, Bologna and Geneva who helped me on so many occasions and to whom I feel very much indebted.




Probing the Quantum Vacuum


Book Description

This book is devoted to an investigation of the vacuum of quantum elec trodynamics (QED), relying on the perturbative effective action approach. If the vacuum is probed with external perturbations, the response of the system can be analyzed after averaging over the high energy degrees of freedom. This results in an effective description of the properties of the vacuum, which are comparable to the properties of a classical medium. We concentrate primarily on the physics of slowly varying fields or soft photons by integrating out the high energy degrees of freedom, i.e. the elec trons, employing Schwinger's proper time method. We derive a new represen tation of the one loop photon polarization tensor, coupling to all orders to an arbitrary constant electromagnetic field, fully maintaining the dependence on the complete set of invariants. On the basis of effective Lagrangians, we derive the light cone condition for low frequency photons propagating in strong fields. Our formalism can be extended to various external perturbations, such as temperature and Casimir situations. We give a proof of the "unified formula" for low energy phenom ena that describes the refractive indices of various perturbed quantum vacua. In the high energy domain, we observe similarities between a vacuum with a superstrong magnetic field and a magnetized plasma. The question of mea surability of the various effects is addressed; a violation of causality is not found.




Computing in Algebraic Geometry


Book Description

This book provides a quick access to computational tools for algebraic geometry, the mathematical discipline which handles solution sets of polynomial equations. Originating from a number of intense one week schools taught by the authors, the text is designed so as to provide a step by step introduction which enables the reader to get started with his own computational experiments right away. The authors present the basic concepts and ideas in a compact way.




Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy


Book Description

Both an introductory course to broadband dielectric spectroscopy and a monograph describing recent dielectric contributions to current topics, this book is the first to cover the topic and has been hotly awaited by the scientific community.