Casimir torques between anisotropic boundaries in nematic liquid crystals.
Fluctuation-induced interactions between anisotropic objects immersed in a nematic liquid crystal are shown to depend on the relative orientation of these objects. The resulting long-range "Casimir" torques are explicitly calculated for a simple geometry where elastic effects are absent. Our study generalizes previous discussions restricted to the case of isotropic walls, and leads to new proposals for experimental tests of Casimir forces and torques in nematics.
Golestanian
R
R
Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, ESA CNRS 7083, ESPCI, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Ajdari
A
A
Fournier
J B
JB