Quantum effects of stringy and membranic nature for the swimming of micro-organisms in a fluid

TL;DR

This paper explores quantum effects in string and membrane theories with gauge fields and their analogy to micro-organism swimming, estimating Casimir energy considering quantum and fluid backreaction effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analogy between string/membrane quantum dynamics and micro-organism swimming, including explicit potential dependence and Casimir energy estimation.

Findings

Quantum effects influence the static potential of extended objects.

Shape dependence of the potential is explicitly calculated.

Casimir energy of micro-organisms is estimated with fluid backreaction considered.

Abstract

The static potential is investigated in string and membrane theories coupled to $U(1)$ gauge fields (specifically, external magnetic fields) and with antisymmetric tensor fields. The explicit dependence of the potential on the shape of the extended objects is obtained, including a careful calculation of the quantum effects. Noting the features which are common to the dynamics of strings and membranes moving in background fields and to the swimming of micro-organisms in a fluid, the latter problem is studied. The Casimir energy of a micro-organism is estimated, taking into account the quantum effects and the backreaction from the outside fluid. The static potential is investigated in string and membrane theories coupled to $U(1)$ gauge fields (specifically, external magnetic fields) and with antisymmetric tensor fields. The explicit dependence of the potential on the shape of the extended objects is obtained, including a careful calculation of the quantum effects. Noting the features which are common to the dynamics of strings and membranes moving in background fields and to the swimming of micro-organisms in a fluid, the latter problem is studied. The Casimir energy of a micro-organism is estimated, taking into account the quantum effects and the backreaction from the outside fluid.