Skip navigation
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01w6634607j
 Title: Non-Additive Casimir Interactions on Fluid Interfaces Authors: Whitton, Jeremy Advisors: Rodriguez, Alejandro Contributors: Staggs, Suzanne Department: Physics Class Year: 2016 Abstract: Long-range van derWaals forces, or more generally Casimir interactions, are a result of quantum fluctuations of charges and electromagnetic fields, and play an important role in wetting and dewetting problems. Traditional approaches to studying fluid equilibrium problems employ additive approximations, includ- ing the Derjaguin and pairwise summation approximations to model the van der Waals forces. However, these additive approximations neglect important e ffects, including multiple scattering, material correlations and, in some cases, the eff ects of retardation ( finite speed of light). In this thesis, we introduce an approach for investigating fluid equilibrium problems that exploits recently developed, rigorous, and sophisticated techniques for computing Casimir forces in arbitrary geometries, with no approximations. As a proof-of-concept, we em- ploy these technique to present new predictions of fluid deformations in struc- tured, periodic gratings where non-additive e ffects not captured by pairwise- additive approximations become important, leading to dramatically diff erent predictions of wetting properties, e.g. wetting transitions and fluid shapes. Extent: 32 pages URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01w6634607j Type of Material: Princeton University Senior Theses Language: en_US Appears in Collections: Physics, 1936-2016

Files in This Item:
File SizeFormat
WhittonJeremyThesisFinal.pdf1.02 MBAdobe PDF

Items in Dataspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.