2020 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Anomalous Casimir effect in axion electrodynamics
| Project/Area Number |
20J20974
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| Research Institution | Keio University |
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Principal Investigator |
QIU Zebin 慶應義塾大学, 自然科学研究教育センター(日吉), 特別研究員(PD)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-24 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | Casimir Effect / Chiral Anomaly / Axion Electrodynamics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I have accomplished the project about the anomalous Casimir effect. We found, in contrast to the conventional Casimir effect which is usually an attractive force, the Casimir force in media with axion electrodynamics could be either attractive or repulsive, depending on the violation of parity symmetry.The significance of our work on a theoretical level is we circumvent a previous no-go theorem prohibiting repulsive Casimir force in setups with geometrical reflection symmetry. The underlying mechanism is the intrinsic breaking of the reflection symmetry by the spatial derivative of the axion theta angle. In the sense of application, repulsive Casimir forces are advantageous in reducing frictions among nanomaterials.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The numerical study was not difficult as thought. We planned to first complete the analytical stages of the study in the fiscal year while proceeding to numerical parts in the next. However, miraculously, the numerical technique, i.e., the quantum scattering formalism could be easily adapted from previous studies for our purpose to include theta angle. Though we still didn't figure out how the two seemingly very different methods converge to a consistent result, in conclusion, we did establish such a double-checked Casimir force. Thus it already sufficed for a publication and we changed our plan to move on to other projects in the following years.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
There are several important extensions based on our current achievement. First, we could pursue an experimental manifestation in Weyl Semimetal or other condensed matter materials featuring theta angle. The result would further prove the effects of the chiral anomaly on a macroscopic scale.
Second, theoretically interesting is the further demonstration of the consistency between quantum scattering formalism and the direct QFT calculation with regularization. Importantly, the former mysteriously encodes the regularization procedure in an implicit way and there must be profound mathematical techniques to connect it with the latter scheme which wait for us to explore.
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Research Products
(1 results)
