CASIMIR FORCES INDUCED BY

BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
Jarosaw Piasecki
jpias@fuw.edu.pl
Institute of Theoretical Physics
Faculty of Physics
University of Warsaw
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 1/21
MOTTO
Tis much better to do a little with certainty
& leave the rest for others that come after,
than to explain all things by conjecture
without making sure of any thing.
Isaak Newton
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 2/21
HENDRIK BRUGT GERHARD
CASIMIR (1909 - 2000)
H. B. G. Casimir
"On the attraction between two perfectly conducting
plates"
Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wet. 51, 793-795 (1948).

c
r
4

2
240
H. B. G. Casimir, D. Polder
"The inuence of retardation on the London-van der
Waals forces"
Phys. Rev. 73, 360-372 (1948).
U(r) =

2
r
7
23c
4
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 3/21
TYPES OF THE CASIMIR EFFECT
electromagnetic
in quantum eld theory
in particle physics
in cosmology
in critical phenomena
dynamical Casimir effect
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STATING THE PROBLEM:
Derive the Casimir effect in an imperfect (interacting) Bose
gas lling the volume contained between two innite
parallel plane walls.
Hamiltonian of the imperfect Bose gas:
H = H
0
+
a
V
N
2
2
H
0
= kinetic energy (perfect gas Hamiltonian)
a/V > 0 =repulsive mean-eld interaction per pair of
bosons
V = volume occupied by the system.
H is superstable!
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 5/21
METHOD OF ANALYSIS
Bose gas occupies volume V = L
2
D of a rectangular box
with linear dimensions L L D .
D denotes the distance between two L L square walls.
The excess grand canonical free energy per unit wall area
is dened by

s
(T, D, ) = lim
L
_
(T, L, D, )
L
2
_
D
b
(T, )
where
b
(T, ) denotes the grand canonical potential per
unit volume evaluated in the thermodynamic limit.
The Casimir force equals
F(T, D, ) =

s
(T, D, )
D
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 6/21
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
One-particle kinetic energy (k) = (k
2
x
+ k
2
y
+ k
2
z
)
2
/2m
z-axis perpendicular to L L walls
periodic
k
z
=
2
D
n
z
, n
z
= 0, 1, 2, ...
Dirichlet
k
z
=

D
n
z
, n
z
= 1, 2, ...
Neumann
k
z
=

D
n
z
, n
z
= 0, 1, 2, ...
k
x
, k
y
-periodic b.c.
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 7/21
IMPORTANT RELATION
Grand canonical potential
(T, L, D, ) = k
B
T ln (T, L, D, )
(T, L, D, ) is related to the analytic continuation of the
perfect gas partition function
0
by
(T, L, D, ) = exp
_
L
2
D
2a

2
_
_
L
2
D
2a
(i)
_
+i
i
dt exp
_
L
2
D
a
_
t
2
2
t
__

0
(T, L, D, t)
( < 0)
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 8/21
BULK PROPERTIES OF THE
IMPERFECT BOSE GAS
The bulk grand canonical free-energy density

b
(T, ) = lim
L
1
L
3
k
B
T ln (T, L, L, ) = p(T, )
can be calculated with the use of the steepest descent
method.
If <
c
= an
0,c
p(T, ) =
1
2
an
2
(T, ) + p
0
(T, an(T, ))
where n(T, ) is the unique solution of the equation
n = n
0
(T, an)
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 9/21
BULK PROPERTIES OF THE
IMPERFECT BOSE GAS
If >
c
= an
0,c
p(T, ) =

2
2a
+ p
0
(T, 0)
In the two-phase region
n =

a
and the density of condensate is equal to
_

a
n
0,c
_
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 10/21
IMPERFECT BOSE GAS:
CONDENSATION
(3/2)
DENSITY OF CONDENSATE
[ m(3/2) ]
n = m
m (3/2)
=
3

=
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
m
1
2
3
4
n
a/
3
= 1
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 11/21
CASIMIR FORCE: PERIODIC
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
The steepest descent method yields the asymptotic form of
the excess free energy density. The Casimir force in the
one-phase region near the condensation point equals
F(T, D, )
k
B
T
=
1
D
3
[2 (x) x

(x) ]
with
(x) =

n=1
1 + 2nx
n
3
exp(2nx)
x =
D

per
,
per
==
an
c
(an
c
)
2
1/2
(3/2)
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CASIMIR FORCE IN THE PRESENCE
OF CONDENSATE
In the two-phase region (in the presence of condensate)
one observes a power-law decay
F(T, D, )
k
B
T
=
2(3)

1
D
3
, > an
c
exactly the same, and with the same amplitude as in the
perfect Bose gas.
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 13/21
IMPERFECT AND PERFECT GAS:
COMPARING CRITICAL BEHAVIOR
Divergence of the range of exponential forces at the
approach to condensation:
imperfect (mean-eld) Bose gas
(an
c
)
1
perfect Bose gas

0
()
1/2
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 14/21
ONE-PARTICLE DENSITY MATRIX
FOR = /K
B
T > 0
THE CASE OF A PERFECT GAS:
< x
2
|
1
|x
1
>= F(|x
2
x
1
|)

3
F(x) =

j=1
1
j
3/2
exp
_
j
x
2
j
2
_
=

x
exp
_
2

_
+

s=1

x
exp
_
A
+
(s)
x

_
2 cos
_
A

(s)
x

_
with
A

(s) =

2(
2
+ 4
2
s
2
)
1/4
_
1

(
2
+ 4
2
s
2
)
1/2
_
.
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 15/21
BULK CORRELATION LENGTH AND
RANGE OF CASIMIR FORCES
Correlation function of a perfect Bose gas

6
[n
2
(r; , T) n
2
] =
_

j=1
1
j
3/2
exp
_
j
r
2
j
2
_
_
2
= /k
B
T, = h/
_
2mk
B
T
Large distance (r ) asymptotics

6
[n
2
(r; , T) n
2
]

=
_

r
_
2
exp
_

0
()
_
.

0
() =
h
4

2m
1

= range of Casimir force !

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PAIR CORRELATIONS IN AN
IMPERFECT BOSE GAS
The hierarchy equations for the thermodynamic Green
functions in the one-phase region < an
c
imply the
equality between the imperfect gas correlation function and
the perfect gas correlation function calculated for the
shifted chemical potential [ an(T, )].
The range of exponentially decaying correlations equals

imp
=

4
_

k
B
T
[ an(T, )]
_
1/2
and diverges

2(3/2)
_
1

an
0,c
_
1
,
when approaches its critical value
c
= an
0,c
from below.
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 17/21
ELEMENTS OF CALCULATION
Knowledge of the asymptotic behavior of Bose functions
g
r
() =

q=1
exp(q)
q
r
when 0
g
1/2
()

=
_

, g
1/2
()

=
1

permits to evaluate derivatives of the density with respect

to the chemical potential at the condensation point
=
imp,c
= n
c
a .
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 18/21
BULK CORRELATIONS AND
CASIMIR FORCES
= range of Casimir forces.
= range of bulk correlations
perfect gas

0,periodic
= 2
0,Dirichlet
= 2
0,Neumann
=
0
critical exponent = 1/2
imperfect (mean eld) gas

periodic
= 2
Dirichlet
= 2
Neumann
= 2

critical exponent = 1
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 19/21
SOME REFERENCES
M. Krech, Casimir Effect in Critical Systems, World Scientic,
Singapour (1994).
G. Brankov, N.S. Tonchev, and D. M. Danchev, Theory of
Critical Phenomena in Finite-Size Systems, World Scientic,
Singapore (2000).
L. Palova, P. Chandra, P. Coleman, The Casimir effect from
condensed matter perspective, Am. J. Phys. 77 (2009) 1055.
E. Elizalde, A, Romeo, Essentials of the Casimir effect and its
computation, Am. J. Phys. 59 (1991) 711.
Ph.A. Martin, P.R. Buenzli, The Casimir effect,
Acta.Phys.Polon.B 37 (2006) 2503-2559.
KMMF, 08.11. 2012 p. 20/21
SOME REFERENCES
Ph. A. Martin and V. A. Zagrebnov, The Casimir effect
for the Bose-gas in slabs, EPL 73, 15 (2006).
M. Napirkowski and J. Piasecki , Phys. Rev. E 84,
061105 (2011).
M. Napirkowski and J. Piasecki , J. Stat. Phys. 147,
1145 (2012).
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