Title | Critical Casimir force between inhomogeneous boundaries |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Authors | Dubail J, Santachiara R, Emig T |
Journal | EPL (Europhysics Letters) |
Volume | 112 |
Issue | 6 |
Pagination | 66004 |
Date Published | Dec-2015 |
ISSN | 0295-5075 |
Abstract | To study the critical Casimir force between chemically structured boundaries immersed in a binary mixture at its demixing transition, we consider a strip of Ising spins subject to alternating fixed spin boundary conditions. The system exhibits a boundary induced phase transition as function of the relative amount of up and down boundary spins. This transition is associated with a sign change of the asymptotic force and a diverging correlation length that sets the scale for the crossover between different universal force amplitudes. Using conformal field theory and a mapping to Majorana fermions, we obtain the universal scaling function of this crossover, and the force at short distances. |
DOI | 10.1209/0295-5075/112/66004 |
Short Title | EPL |