Tuesday's seminar

[Cond.Matt. & Stat.Mech.Section]

JOINT ICTP/SISSA STATISTICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR



Tuesday, 19 January   -   11:00 hrs.





Seminar Room - ICTP Leonardo Building - 1st floor





Robert L. JAFFE   (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge)



"Casimir effects: Physical manifestations of the quantum vacuum"



  Abstract

  The forces and torques among macroscopic objects caused by  
fluctuating quantum fields are known as Casimir effects after the  
Dutch theoretician who discovered them in the late 1940's.  Recent  
high precision experiments and emerging micro-electromechanical  
applications have generated great interest in the nature, properties,  
and manipulation of Casimir effects.  I will discuss the origins,  
interpretation, and computation of Casimir effects.  In particular I  
will outline the development of a powerful method to compute Casimir  
forces and torques based on classical scattering theory.  I will  
survey some of the resul