Quantum interference phenomena in the Casimir effect

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental test to determine whether the Casimir effect should be modeled with ballistic or diffusive electrons by measuring the force between disordered metallic plates and analyzing quantum interference effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach to distinguish between ballistic and diffusive electron models in the Casimir effect using weak localization corrections.

Findings

Weak localization modifies the Casimir force in a measurable way.

Magnetic field and temperature can tune the quantum interference effects.

Results can validate or challenge the Drude model in Casimir physics.

Abstract

We propose a definitive test of whether plates involved in Casimir experiments should be modeled with ballistic or diffusive electrons--a prominent controversy highlighted by a number of conflicting experiments. The unambiguous test we propose is a measurement of the Casimir force between a disordered quasi-2D metallic plate and a three-dimensional metallic system at low temperatures, in which disorder-induced weak localization effects modify the well-known Drude result in an experimentally tunable way. We calculate the weak localization correction to the Casimir force as a function of magnetic field and temperature and demonstrate that the quantum interference suppression of the Casimir force is a strong, observable effect. The coexistence of weak localization suppression in electronic transport and Casimir pressure would lend credence to the Drude theory of the Casimir effect, while the lack of such correlation would indicate a fundamental problem with the existing theory. We also study mesoscopic disorder fluctuations in the Casimir effect and estimate the width of the distribution of Casmir energies due to disorder fluctuations.