Author's School

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Author's Department/Program

Physics

Language

English (en)

Date of Award

12-30-2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Chair and Committee

Ramanath Cowsik

Abstract

In the 83 years of its development, Casimir force theory has seen many advances.

However, there still exists a need for more comprehensive approaches, particularly to complex geometries. To this end we have developed an approach to the Casimir force and demonstrated its use in predicting the Casimir force present in many cases such as the case of a single hollow sphere, finite size parallel plates, and anisotropic conductors.

Within the field of Casimir force experimentation, many predicted characteristics have not yet been demonstrated. To that end, we are performing an experiment designed to investigate the orientational dependence of the Casimir force between parallel plates with in-plane optical anisotropy. Such an experiment is the first of its kind and if an orientational dependence is observed it will unambiguously state that the Casimir force is not the result of a scalar interaction. The experiment described herein is ongoing; preliminary results our given describing the current state of the apparatus.

Comments

Permanent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7936/K75B00KV

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