Topological Casimir effect in nanotubes and nanoloopes
arXiv:0911.1207 · doi:10.1142/9789814289931_0059
Abstract
The Casimir effect is investigated in cylindrical and toroidal carbon nanotubes within the framework of the Dirac-like model for the electronic states. The topological Casimir energy is positive for metallic cylindrical nanotubes and is negative for semiconducting ones. The toroidal compactification of a cylindrical nanotube along its axis increases the Casimir energy for metallic-type (periodic) boundary conditions along its axis and decreases the Casimir energy for the semiconducting-type compactifications. For finite length metallic nanotubes the Casimir forces acting on the tube edges are always attractive, whereas for semiconducting-type ones they are attractive for small lengths of the nanotube and repulsive for large lengths.
arXiv comment5 pages, 1 figure, Contribution to Proceedings of QFEXT09, 21-25 September 2009, Oklahoma, USA