Detecting the Casimir Energy

检测卡西米尔能量

• 批准号: 1708283
• 负责人: David Bishop
• 金额: $ 37万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1708283&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Detecting; Casimir; Energy

Title: Detecting the Casimir Energy: A Quantum Mechanical Effect with Significant Real-World ImplicationsAbstract:Non-technical: In the classical world, a vacuum consists of nothing. No fields, forces or particles exist. However, the world we live in is not classical but controlled at the atomic scale by the rules of quantum mechanics (QM). Quantum mechanics has a number of rules and effects that defy our normal, real-world intuition. An example is the quantum mechanical vacuum. In such a vacuum, electrical and magnetic fields can and do exist albeit for short periods of time and over small length scales. One can think of the vacuum as the surface of a pond. The classical vacuum is a still pond with no waves or ripples. A boat floating on this pond never moves. However, the QM pond has waves that propagate for a short distance and then die out. These waves can move a boat on the surface. The Casimir effect is seen when one creates a set of conditions where these waves exert measurable forces on small, nanoscale objects (our boat). In classical physics, these forces should not exist but quantum mechanically they do exist and can be detected. These QM effects manifest themselves at the nanoscale and building devices and systems at this size requires that we understand them and learn how to work with them. Specifically, theoretical predictions suggest that these QM waves will change the transition temperature of a superconductor and we aim to observe this effect. Beyond interesting physics, such an effect may have implications for the existence of wormholes in space. While it is not fair to say we are looking for these, we will be doing experiments in a regime where theories by some of the world?s most eminent scientists say they may occur. We do plan to keep our eyes open.Technical: We propose research that will create MEMS devices for detecting the Casimir Energy. The Casimir effect is a result of the appearance of quantum fluctuations in the electromagnetic vacuum. A previous set of experiments done by a number of researchers have used MEMS parallel plate capacitors to detect the Casimir effect by measuring the small attractive force these fluctuations exert on the device. In this new set of experiments, we propose to directly detect the Casimir Energy in the vacuum modified by the presence of metallic parallel plates, a fundamentally new measurement of considerable interest to the theoretical physics community. Our approach uses a superconducting film as a sensor. The changes in the Casimir Energy within the superconductor volume is expected to shift the superconducting transition temperature because of an interaction between it and the superconducting condensation energy. The experiment we propose consists of taking a superconducting film, carefully measuring its transition temperature, bringing a conducting plate close to the film, creating a Casimir cavity, and then measuring the transition temperature again. The expected shifts will be small, ~1mK, comparable to the normal shifts one sees in cycling superconducting films to cryogenic temperatures and so using MEMS plates and doing this in situ is the only practical way to obtain accurate, reproducible data. We propose to use a MEMS device where the location of the plate can be changed while at low temperatures and look for this effect. Mechanically oscillating the MEMS plate position will modulate the effect and eliminate 1/f noise and long-term drifts from the measurement.

职务名称：探测卡西米尔能量：一个具有重要现实意义的量子力学效应摘要：非技术性的：在经典世界中，真空是由什么都没有。不存在场、力或粒子。然而，我们生活的世界不是经典的，而是在原子尺度上由量子力学（QM）规则控制的。量子力学有许多规则和影响，违背了我们正常的，现实世界的直觉。一个例子是量子力学真空。在这样的真空中，电场和磁场可以而且确实存在，尽管时间很短，长度尺度很小。人们可以把真空想象成池塘的水面。经典真空是一个没有波浪或涟漪的平静池塘。浮在池塘上的船永远不会移动。然而，QM池具有传播短距离然后消失的波。这些波浪能使船在水面上移动。当人们创造一系列条件，使这些波对小的、纳米级的物体（我们的船）施加可测量的力时，就可以看到卡西米尔效应。在经典物理学中，这些力不应该存在，但在量子力学中它们确实存在，并且可以被检测到。这些量子力学效应在纳米尺度上表现出来，在这种尺寸上构建设备和系统需要我们理解它们并学习如何使用它们。具体来说，理论预测表明，这些QM波将改变超导体的转变温度，我们的目标是观察这种效应。除了有趣的物理学，这种效应可能对空间中虫洞的存在有影响。虽然说我们正在寻找这些是不公平的，但我们将在一个世界上一些理论？最著名的科学家说，他们可能会发生。我们计划睁大我们的眼睛。技术：我们提出的研究，将创建检测卡西米尔能量的MEMS设备。卡西米尔效应是电磁真空中出现量子涨落的结果。许多研究人员之前进行的一组实验使用MEMS平行板电容器通过测量这些波动施加在设备上的小吸引力来检测Casimir效应。在这组新的实验中，我们建议直接检测真空中的卡西米尔能量，该能量通过金属平行板的存在而被修改，这是理论物理界非常感兴趣的一种全新的测量方法。我们的方法使用超导薄膜作为传感器。超导体体积内卡西米尔能的变化由于与超导凝聚能之间的相互作用而预期会改变超导转变温度。我们提出的实验包括取一个超导薄膜，仔细测量它的转变温度，把一个导电板靠近薄膜，创造一个卡西米尔腔，然后再次测量转变温度。预期的偏移将很小，约为1 mK，与循环超导薄膜到低温温度时看到的正常偏移相当，因此使用MEMS板并在原位这样做是获得准确，可重复数据的唯一实用方法。我们建议使用MEMS器件，其中板的位置可以在低温下改变，并寻找这种效果。机械振荡MEMS板的位置将调节效果，并消除1/f噪声和测量的长期漂移。

项目成果

Building a Casimir Metrology Platform with a commercial MEMS sensor

使用商用 MEMS 传感器构建卡西米尔计量平台

• DOI: 10.1038/s41378-019-0054-5
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: 07 Nature
• 作者: Stange, A.;Imboden, M.;Javor, J.;Barrett, L.;Bishop, D.
• 通讯作者: Bishop, D.

Science and technology of the Casimir effect

卡西米尔效应的科学与技术

• DOI: 10.1063/pt.3.4656
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Physics Today
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Stange, Alexander;Campbell, David K.;Bishop, David J.
• 通讯作者: Bishop, David J.