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Colloquium - Mehran Kardar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "Levitation by Casimir forces in and out of equilibrium"

A close-up of Mehran Kardar.
October 1, 2013
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
1080 Physics Research Building - Smith Seminar Room - reception at 3:45 pm in Atrium

A generalization of Earnshaw's theorem constrains the possibility of levitation by Casimir forces in equilibrium. The scattering formalism, which forms the basis of this proof, can be used to study fluctuation-induced forces for different materials, diverse geometries, both in and out of equilibrium. In the off-equilibrium context, I shall discuss non-classical heat transfer, and some manifestations of the dynamical Casimir effect.