Calculation of nonzero-temperature Casimir forces in the time domain

Abstract

We show how to compute Casimir forces at nonzero temperatures with time-domain electromagnetic simulations, for example using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Compared to our previous zero-temperature time-domain method, only a small modification is required, but we explain that some care is required to properly capture the zero-frequency contribution. We validate the method against analytical and numerical frequency-domain calculations, and show a surprising high-temperature disappearance of a non-monotonic behavior previously demonstrated in a piston-like geometry.

5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review A Rapid Communication

References in corpus (8)

• Observation of the thermal Casimir force
• The Casimir effect within scattering theory
• Limits on Nonstandard Forces in the Submicrometer Range
• Virtual photons in imaginary time: Computing exact Casimir forces via standard numerical-electromagnetism techniques
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Fluctuating Surface Currents: A New Algorithm for Efficient Prediction of Casimir Interactions among Arbitrary Materials in Arbitrary Geometries. I. Theory
• Fluctuation-Induced Phenomena in Nanoscale Systems: Harnessing the Power of Noise
• High-accuracy Casimir-Polder force calculations using the Discontinuous Galerkin Time-Domain method