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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 21: Finite size effects at phase transitions II (session accompanying the symposium of the same name)

DY 21.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 14:00–14:15, H3

Nonequilibrium relaxation and critical Casimir forces — •Andrea Gambassi and Siegfried Dietrich — Max-Planck-Institut fuer Metallforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 3, 70569 Stuttgart and Institut fuer Theoretische und Angewandte Physik, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart

Fluctuation-induced forces play a relevant role in the physics of soft matter. Among them, those induced by confined critical fluctuations (thermodynamic Casimir effect) are characterized by a certain degree of universality which makes them actually independent of many microscopic details of the specific system and therefore it allows for theoretical investigations in terms of simplified models. In this contribution we focus on some dynamical aspects of the thermodynamic Casimir effect and in particular on the way this force builds up in time when the fluctuating medium is rapidly quenched to its critical point.