Casimir friction at zero and finite temperatures

Abstract

The Casimir friction problem for dielectric plates that move parallel to each other is treated by assuming one of the plates to be at rest. The other performs a closed loop motion in the longitudinal direction. Therewith by use of energy dissipation the formalism becomes more manageable and transparent than in the conventional setting where uniform sliding motion is assumed from $t=-\infty$ to $t=+\infty$. One avoids separating off a reversible interparticle force (independent of friction) from the total force. Moreover, the cases of temperatures $T=0$ and finite $T$ are treated on the same footing. For metal plates we find the friction force to be proportional to $v^3$ at $T=0$ while at finite $T$ it is proportional to $v$ for small $v$ as found earlier. Comparisons with earlier results of Pendry (1997, 2010) and Barton (2011) are made.

20 pages latex, no figures

References in corpus (5)

• Theory of friction: contribution from fluctuating electromagnetic field
• No quantum friction between uniformly moving plates
• Non-contact friction between nanostructures
• Vacuum attraction, friction and heating of nanoparticles moving nearby a heated surface
• Dynamical van der Waals atom -surface interaction

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• Comment on "Fully covariant radiation force on a polarizable particle"
• Casimir Friction Between a Magnetic and a Dielectric Material, in the Nonretarded Limit
• Casimir friction: Relative motion more generally
• Macroscopic approach to the Casimir friction force