Friction That Speeds Up an Object’s Movement
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• Physics 16, s99
A friction-like quantum drive may speed up the movement of a rotating nanometer-diameter sphere when the sphere sits subsequent to a graphene-coated floor.
L. Ge/ Xinyang Regular College
A classical object experiences friction solely when it touches one other object. A quantum one can expertise a associated drive with out contacting something. That drive, often known as quantum friction, arises from interactions of the article with vacuum fluctuations, electromagnetic waves that pop out and in of existence. Now Lixin Ge of Xinyang Regular College in China proposes a brand new vacuum-fluctuation-induced drive, damaging vacuum friction, that acts in the identical path as the article strikes, inflicting it to maneuver quicker [1]. Ge says that damaging vacuum friction may provide a brand new strategy to quickly rotate nanoparticles, a method doubtlessly helpful in precision measurements.
Ge considers a rotating nanometer-diameter sphere positioned close to a graphene-coated substrate. Vacuum fluctuations work together with the rotating sphere and subsequently emit terahertz electromagnetic radiation. This radiation causes quasiparticles to type and stream on the substrate’s floor. These quasiparticles enhance the magnitude of the electromagnetic interactions between the sphere and substrate, mediated by way of the vacuum fluctuations.
On most substrates, these quasiparticles will regularly decelerate. However Ge predicts that on a graphene-coated system, the terahertz induced quasiparticles will speed up as they propagate if the floor is illuminated with mild. This acceleration induces the substrate to recoil in the wrong way to the quasiparticle stream. In response to Newton’s third regulation, the nanosphere should expertise a drive equal in magnitude however reverse in path to the drive the substrate experiences. This drive pushes in the identical path because the sphere’s rotation—it’s this drive that that Ge calls damaging vacuum friction.
–Sophia Chen
Sophia Chen is a contract science author primarily based in Columbus, Ohio.
References
- L. Ge, “Detrimental vacuum friction in terahertz achieve methods,” Phys. Rev. B 108, 045406 (2023).
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