From Casimir Effect to Quantum Atmosphere*

By altering the propagation of virtual photons, materials can influence the behavior of objects in their vicinity. They can cause forces on macroscopic bodies (Casimir effect), or perturb the spectra of nearby molecular complexes. I’ll breifly show how to make repulsive Casimir force by using chiral materials, but mainly discuss how symmetry breaking states of matter can transmit symmetry breaking effects to spectra. I’ll discuss a few such effects, which involve the “axion electrodynamics” relevant to topological insulators, quantitatively. Then I’ll describe an operator framework whereby effects of this kind can be analyzed systematically, qualitatively, and discuss possible experimental implications.