International Workshop "60 Years of Casimir Effect"

From June 23rd-27th, 2008
Brasilia, DF - Brazil

Principal Organizers:
Gabriel Barton (Brighton, United Kingdom)
Victor Dodonov (Brasilia, Brazil)

International Advisory Committee:
Michael Bordag (Leipzig, Germany)
Giovanni Carugno (Padova, Italy)
Emilio Elizalde (Barcelona, Spain)
Francisco Mazzitelli (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Kimball Milton (Norman, USA)
Vladimir Mostepanenko (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Serge Reynaud (Paris, France)

Local Organizing Committee:
Alvaro Ferraz (Brasília, Brazil)
Gilvan Marcelino (Brasília, Brazil)
Ana Claudia Vargas (Brasília, Brazil)
Ademir Santana (Brasília, Brazil)
Daniel Muller (Brasília, Brazil)

The scope of the Workshop and general information

In 1948, Hendrick Casimir published an article, where he showed that neutral ideal metallic plates attract each other, an effect ascribed to the influence of quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. For the past 60 years, this remarkable phenomenon, called nowadays the Casimir Effect charmed several generations of physicists.

Various consequences, generalizations and possible applications were found in such different areas as particle, nuclear, atomic and molecular physics, cavity quantum electrodynamics, condensed matter physics and cosmology.

Moreover, interest in the subject keeps growing, especially due to impressive progress in experimental skills and its importance for the recently emerged area of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. Nonetheless, there are many still unsolved problems and controversial results, in particular, when one tries to take into account the properties of real materials with finite conductivity and complicated dispersion laws.

We expect that the Workshop in Brasilia will gather leading specialists in the area, both theoreticians and experimentalists, as well as young researchers and post-graduate students who wish to hear about the most recent achievements in the field and to discuss the related problems. We are planning to have from 12 to 15 plenary/review talks (50 minutes) and about 45 regular talks of 25 minutes, as well as presentations of posters.

The main topics to be discussed during the Workshop are as follows:
* Theoretical problems and mathematical methods related to the Casimir effect in different areas.
* Recent experimental achievements and their comparison with theoretical models.
* The Casimir effect in real metals, semiconductors, superconductors, meta-materials, Bose-Einstein condensates, thin filmes, etc.
* Lateral Casimir forces and Casimir torques.
* The influence of geometry and surface properties.
* Dynamical (nonstationary) Casimir effect: theory and experiments.
* Casimir effect and micro/nano-electromechanical systems.
* Possible applications in different areas.

The Workshop will take place in the International Center of Condensed Matter Physics in Brasilia. It will start at 9:00 on Monday, June 23, and finish at 18:00 on Friday, June 27. There will be no parallel sessions. It is expected that participants will come to Brasilia on Sunday, June 22.

Registration

We ask all potential participants to fill in the on-line application form. The deadline for applications is May 1, 2008. The deadline for applications for a financial support is March 1, 2008.

Lodging, meal and transportation

The ICCMP will provide the transportation for participants from their hotel(s) in the center of Brasilia to ICCMP and back, as well as to the restaurant at lunch time, and back. More detailed information will be given later.

Proceedings

We are planning to publish the Proceedings of the Workshop. The details will be given later.

A preliminary list of plenary speakers:

Diego Dalvit (Los Alamos, USA)

Enrico Calloni (Naples, Italy)

Galina Klimchitskaya (St.Petersburg, Russia)

Giovanni Carugno (Padova, Italy)

Kimball Milton (Norman, USA)

Ricardo Decca (Indianapolis, USA)

Robert Jaffe (Cambridge, USA)

Roberto Onofrio (Hanover, USA)

Serge Reynaud (Paris, France)

Umar Mohideen (Riverside, USA)

Vladimir Mostepanenko (St.Petersburg, Russia)

Questions

For general questions (program, schedule, financial support, proceedings, etc.), please contact Prof. Victor Dodonov (vdodonov@fis.unb.br). For technical questions (payment of fees, lodging, travel details, etc.), please contact Ana Claudia Vargas (anaclaudia@iccmp.web.br.com)