Casimir effect with dielectric matter in salted water and implications at the cell scale

TL;DR

This paper explores the universal Casimir effect in salted water, revealing its longer range and significance at the cellular level, with implications for biological matter modeling.

Contribution

It demonstrates the dominance of universal electromagnetic fluctuation contributions in biological environments and discusses their implications at the cell scale.

Findings

Universal Casimir contribution dominates at cellular distances.

The effect has longer range than previously thought.

Implications for biological matter and cellular processes.

Abstract

The Casimir interaction in salted water contains a universal contribution of electromagnetic fluctuations that makes it of a longer range than previously thought. The universal contribution dominates non universal ones at the distances relevant for actin fibers inside the cell. We discuss universal and non-universal contributions with a model mimicking biological matter. We also show that the universal Casimir effect should have important implications at the cell scale.