Switching and amplifying three-body Casimir effects

Abstract

The dynamics of three interacting objects has been investigated extensively in Newtonian gravitational physics (often termed the three-body problem), and is important for many quantum systems, including nuclei, Efimov states, and frustrated spin systems. However, the dynamics of three macroscopic objects interacting through quantum vacuum fluctuations (virtual photons) is still an unexplored frontier. Here, we report the first observation of Casimir interactions between three isolated macroscopic objects. We propose and demonstrate a three terminal switchable architecture exploiting opto-mechanical Casimir interactions that can lay the foundations of a Casimir transistor. Beyond the paradigm of Casimir forces between two objects in different geometries, our Casimir transistor represents an important development for control of three-body virtual photon interactions and will have potential applications in sensing and information processing with the Casimir effect.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Measurement of the Casimir force between a gold sphere and silicon surface with nanoscale trench arrays
• Measurement of non-monotonic Casimir forces between silicon nanostructures
• Non-Hermitian chiral phononics through optomechanically-induced squeezing
• Phonon heat transport in cavity-mediated optomechanical nanoresonators
• Dynamical Casimir Effect in Quantum Information Processing
• Search for non-Newtonian interactions at micrometer scale with a levitated test mass
• Non-reciprocal energy transfer through the Casimir effect
• Casimir spring and dilution in macroscopic cavity optomechanics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Near-field GHz rotation and sensing with an optically levitated nanodumbbell
• Control of the Radiative Heat Transfer in a Pair of Rotating Nanostructures
• Thermal radiation forces on planar structures with asymmetric optical response
• Imaging nanomechanical vibrations and manipulating parametric mode coupling via scanning microwave microscopy
• Nanoscale Casimir Force Softening Originated from Quantum Surface Responses
• Quantum and Critical Casimir Effects: Bridging Fluctuation Physics and Nanotechnology
• Thermal Radiation Force and Torque on Moving Nanostructures with Anisotropic Optical Response
• Searching Repulsive Casimir Forces Between Magneto-Electric Materials