A eletrodinâmica clássica estocástica pode ser entendida como sendo a teoria clássica de Maxwell, onde se inclui um novo elemento da realidade física: As flutuações eletromagnéticas de ponto zero. Sob esse enfoque, estudamos a interação de um \"ensemble\", de osciladores harmônicos carregados com a radiação térmica e de ponto zero (atérmica). Incluímos os efeitos de dissipação através da força de reação da radiação. Além disso estudamos também a excitação do oscilador por uma força determinística com dependência temporal arbitrária. Nossa análise estatística do sistema físico é baseada na solução exata da equação de Fokker-Planck adequada ao problema. Obtém-se a evolução temporal, no espaço de fase, para uma dada distribuição inicial que caracteriza um \"ensemble\" de osciladores forçados que apresentam estados excitados na forma de estados coerentes e estados coerentes comprimidos e pulsantes. A comparação direta com a formulação quântica do mesmo problema nos faz reconhecer que é possível obter da física clássica alguns resultados antes só obtidos pela teoria quântica. Identificamos na radiação de ponto zero o ingrediente que torna possível entender a estabilidade do estado fundamental e o princípio de incerteza. / Classical stochastic electrodynamics may be understood as classical electrodynamics theory, when a new element of physical reality is included: The zero point electrodynamics fluctuations. Under this approach, we study the interaction of a charged harmonic oscillator with the thermal radiation and zero point radiation. We include the effect of dissipation by the radiation reaction force. We also study the excitation of this oscillator by a deterministic force with arbitrary temporal dependence. Our statistical analysis of the physical system is based on the exact solution of the appropriate Fokker-Planck equation. We get the temporal evolution in phase space for a given initial distribution that characterizes one \"ensemble\" of forced oscillators that presents excited states in the coherent and squeezed states form. A direct comparison with the quantum formulation of the same problem make us recognize that it is possible to get some results from classical physics which were accomplished previously only by quantum theory. We identify in the zero point radiation the ingredient that makes it possible to understand the stability of the fundamental state and the uncertainty principle.

A eletrodinâmica clássica estocástica pode ser entendida como sendo a teoria clássica de Maxwell, onde se inclui um novo elemento da realidade física: As flutuações eletromagnéticas de ponto zero. Sob esse enfoque, estudamos a interação de um \"ensemble\", de osciladores harmônicos carregados com a radiação térmica e de ponto zero (atérmica). Incluímos os efeitos de dissipação através da força de reação da radiação. Além disso estudamos também a excitação do oscilador por uma força determinística com dependência temporal arbitrária. Nossa análise estatística do sistema físico é baseada na solução exata da equação de Fokker-Planck adequada ao problema. Obtém-se a evolução temporal, no espaço de fase, para uma dada distribuição inicial que caracteriza um \"ensemble\" de osciladores forçados que apresentam estados excitados na forma de estados coerentes e estados coerentes comprimidos e pulsantes. A comparação direta com a formulação quântica do mesmo problema nos faz reconhecer que é possível obter da física clássica alguns resultados antes só obtidos pela teoria quântica. Identificamos na radiação de ponto zero o ingrediente que torna possível entender a estabilidade do estado fundamental e o princípio de incerteza. / Classical stochastic electrodynamics may be understood as classical electrodynamics theory, when a new element of physical reality is included: The zero point electrodynamics fluctuations. Under this approach, we study the interaction of a charged harmonic oscillator with the thermal radiation and zero point radiation. We include the effect of dissipation by the radiation reaction force. We also study the excitation of this oscillator by a deterministic force with arbitrary temporal dependence. Our statistical analysis of the physical system is based on the exact solution of the appropriate Fokker-Planck equation. We get the temporal evolution in phase space for a given initial distribution that characterizes one \"ensemble\" of forced oscillators that presents excited states in the coherent and squeezed states form. A direct comparison with the quantum formulation of the same problem make us recognize that it is possible to get some results from classical physics which were accomplished previously only by quantum theory. We identify in the zero point radiation the ingredient that makes it possible to understand the stability of the fundamental state and the uncertainty principle.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20656号 / 理博第4321号 / 新制||理||1621(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 佐々木 節, 教授 田中 貴浩, 教授 川合 光 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The Casimir-Polder interaction between a single neutral atom and a nearby surface, arising from the (quantum and thermal) fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, is a cornerstone of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), and theoretically well established. Recently, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ultracold atoms have been used to test the predictions of cQED. The purpose of the present thesis is to upgrade single-atom cQED with the many-body theory needed to describe trapped atomic BECs. Tools and methods are developed in a second-quantized picture that treats atom and photon fields on the same footing. We formulate a diagrammatic expansion using correlation functions for both the electromagnetic field and the atomic system. The formalism is applied to investigate, for BECs trapped near surfaces, dispersion interactions of the van der Waals-Casimir-Polder type, and the Bosonic stimulation in spontaneous decay of excited atomic states. We also discuss a phononic Casimir effect, which arises from the quantum fluctuations in an interacting BEC. / Die durch (quantenmechanische und thermische) Fluktuationen des elektromagnetischen Feldes hervorgerufene Casimir-Polder-Wechselwirkung zwischen einem elektrisch neutralen Atom und einer benachbarten Oberfläche stellt einen theoretisch gut untersuchten Aspekt der Resonator-Quantenelektrodynamik (cavity quantum electrodynamics, cQED) dar. Seit kurzem werden atomare Bose-Einstein-Kondensate (BECs) verwendet, um die theoretischen Vorhersagen der cQED zu überprüfen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die bestehende cQED Theorie für einzelne Atome mit den Techniken der Vielteilchenphysik zur Beschreibung von BECs zu verbinden. Es werden Werkzeuge und Methoden entwickelt, um sowohl Photon- als auch Atom-Felder gleichwertig in zweiter Quantisierung zu beschreiben. Wir formulieren eine diagrammatische Störungstheorie, die Korrelationsfunktionen des elektromagnetischen Feldes und des Atomsystems benutzt. Der Formalismus wird anschließend verwendet, um für in Fallen nahe einer Oberfläche gehaltene BECs Atom-Oberflächen-Wechselwirkungen vom Casimir-Polder-Typ und die bosonische Stimulation des spontanen Zerfalls angeregter Atome zu untersuchen. Außerdem untersuchen wir einen phononischen Casimir-Effekt, der durch die quantenmechanischen Fluktuationen in einem wechselwirkenden BEC entsteht.

Ultra-relativisitic heavy ion collisions produce quark gluon plasma-a hot and dense soup of deconfined quarks and gluons akin to the early universe. We study two models in the context of these collisions namely, Polyakov Quark Meson Model (PQM) and Hadron Resonance Gas Model (HRGM).The PQM Model provides us with a simple and intuitive understanding of the QCD equation of state and thermodynamics at non zero temperature and baryon density while the HRGM is the principle model to analyse the hadron yields measured in these experiments across the entire range of beam energies. We study the effect of including the commonly neglected fermionic vacuum fluctuations to the (2+1) flavor PQM model. The conventional PQM model suffers from a rapid phase transition contrary to what is found through lattice simulations. Addition of the vacuum term tames the rapid transition and significantly improves the model’s agreement to lattice data. We further investigate the role of the vacuum term on the phase diagram. The smoothening effect of the vacuum term persists even at non zero . Depending on the value of the mass of the sigma meson, including the vacuum term results in either pushing the critical end point into higher values of the chemical potential or excluding the possibility of a critical end point altogether. We compute the fluctuations(correlations) of conserved charges up to sixth(fourth) order. Comparison is made with lattice data wherever available and overall good qualitative agreement is found, more so for the case of the normalised susceptibilities. The model predictions for the ratio of susceptibilities approach to that of an ideal gas of hadrons as in HRGM at low temperatures while at high temperature the values are close to that of an ideal gas of massless quarks. We examine the stability of HRGMs by extending them to take care of undiscovered resonances through the Hagedorn formula. We find that the influence of unknown resonances on thermodynamics is large but bounded. We model the decays of resonances and investigate the ratios of particle yields in heavy-ion collisions. We find that extending these models do not have much effect on hydrodynamics but the hadron yield ratios show better agreement with experiment. In principle HRGMs are internally consistent up to a temperature higher than the cross over temperature in QCD; but by examining quark number susceptibilities we find that their region of applicability seems to end even below the QCD cross over.

<p>One of the fundamental predictions of quantum mechanics is the occurrence of random fluctuations which can induce a measurable force between neutral objects, known as the Casimir effect. Casimir effect has attracted a lot of interest in both theoretical and practical work since the first prediction in 1948 because it is the most accessible evidence of quantum electromagnetic fluctuations in vacuum. Besides, it has prospective applications for nanotechnology and for studying fundamental physical theories beyond the standard model. In this dissertation, we report the experimental and theoretical progress towards realizing Casimir-based devices and long sought-after vacuum friction. </p> <p><br></p> <p>First, we propose and experimentally realize the first Casimir diode system that can regulate energy transfer along one direction through quantum vacuum fluctuations. This is the first experimental demonstration of non-reciprocal energy transfer by Casimir effects. We develop a dual-cantilever vacuum system which can be used to measure the Casimir force at separations from 50 nm to 1000 nm.  Parametric coupling scheme is applied to the system to couple two cantilevers with different resonant frequencies by Casimir interaction. By controlling the system near the exceptional point, we are able to break the time reversal symmetry and observe the non-reciprocal energy transfer. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The description of the Casimir diode system is followed by an experimental demonstration of the Casimir transistor system where we achieve the first measurement of Casimir interaction between three macroscopic objects. Three cantilevers can be coupled through quantum vacuum fluctuations by the parametric coupling scheme. Moreover, we have realized the first three-terminal Casimir transistor system that can switch and amplify quantum vacuum mediated energy transfer. These two Casimir-based devices will have potential applications in sensing and information processing.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>Subsequently, the first observation of Casimir mediated non-contact friction is demonstrated experimentally. When two parallel surfaces are moving with a relative velocity, they will experience quantum vacuum friction force which tries to slow down the relative motion because of quantum vacuum fluctuations. The quantum vacuum friction comes from the exchange of virtual photons between two moving bodies.  We have designed a novel method to detect the Casimir force mediated non-contact friction force between two harmonic oscillators. The non-contact friction comes from the interaction of virtual photons and phonons. We have experimentally detected the effect of non-contact friction and successfully measured the friction force at different velocities. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In the latter part of this thesis, two theoretical proposals about detecting the Casimir torque and rotational quantum vacuum friction torque by a levitated optomechanical system are discussed. The optically levitated nanoparticle system is a good candidate for precision measurements because it can achieve an ultrahigh mechanical quality factor due to the well isolation from the thermal environment. The calculation of the Casimir torque on a levitated nanorod near a birefringent plate is demonstrated. The calculation of the rotational quantum vacuum friction torque on a rotating nanosphere near a plate is also presented. By comparing these small torques to the sensitivity of our levitation system, we show that it is feasible to detect the Casimir torque and the rotational quantum vacuum friction torque under realistic conditions in the near future. </p> <p><br></p>