Light induced "Mock Gravity" at the nanoscale

TL;DR

This paper predicts a scale-independent, gravity-like attractive force between molecules or nanoparticles in specific light fields, based on a resonance condition that could influence nanoscale interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of Mock-Gravity at the nanoscale, showing how resonant light can induce inverse square attractive forces between particles.

Findings

Predicts inverse square attractive forces at the Froehlich resonance.

Force is scale independent, applicable at near and far-field distances.

Links classical gravity concepts to nanoscale optical interactions.

Abstract

The origin of long-range attractive interactions has fascinated scientist along centuries. The remarkable Fatio-LeSage's corpuscular theory, introduced as early as in 1690 and generalized to electromagnetic waves by Lorentz, proposed that, due to their mutual shadowing, two absorbing particles in an isotropic radiation field experience an attractive force which follows a gravity-like inverse square distance law. Similar "Mock Gravity" interactions were later introduced by Spitzer and Gamow in the context of Galaxy formation but their actual relevance in Cosmology has never been unambiguously established. Here we predict the existence of Mock-Gravity, inverse square distance, attractive forces between two identical molecules or nanoparticles in a quasi monochromatic isotropic random light field, whenever the light frequency is tuned to an absorption line such that the real part of the particle's electric polarizability is zero, i.e. at the so-called Froehlich resonance. These interactions are scale independent, holding for both near and far-field separation distances.