Rectification of the lateral Casimir force in a vibrating noncontact rack and pinion.

The nonlinear dynamics of a cylindrical pinion that is kept at a distance from a vibrating rack is studied, and it is shown that the lateral Casimir force between the two corrugated surfaces can be rectified. The effects of friction and external load are taken into account, and it is shown that the...

Szczegółowa specyfikacja

Opis bibliograficzny
Główni autorzy: Ashourvan, A, Miri, M, Golestanian, R
Format: Journal article
Język:English
Wydane: 2007
Opis
Streszczenie:The nonlinear dynamics of a cylindrical pinion that is kept at a distance from a vibrating rack is studied, and it is shown that the lateral Casimir force between the two corrugated surfaces can be rectified. The effects of friction and external load are taken into account, and it is shown that the pinion can do work against loads of up to a critical value, which is set by the amplitude of the lateral Casimir force. We present a phase diagram for the rectified motion that could help its experimental investigations, as the system exhibits a chaotic behavior in a large part of the parameter space.