Paper detail

Thermodynamic Casimir Effect in the large-n limit

We consider systems with slab geometry of finite thickness L that undergo second order phase transitions in the bulk limit and belong to the universality class of O(n)-symmetric systems with short-range interactions. In these systems the critical fluctuations at the bulk critical temperature T_c induce a long-range effective force called the "thermodynamic Casimir force". We describe the systems in the framework of the O(n)-symmetric phi^4-model, restricting us to the large-n limit n->infty. In this limit the physically relevant case of three space dimensions d=3 can be treated analytically in systems with translational symmetry as, e.g., in the bulk or slabs with periodic or antiperiodic boundary conditions. We consider Dirichlet and open boundary conditions at the surfaces that break the translational invariance along the axis perpendicular to the slab. From the broken translational invariance we conclude the necessity to solve the systems numerically. We evaluate the Casimir amplitudes for Dirichlet and open boundary conditions on both surfaces and for Dirichlet on one and open on the other surface. Belonging to the same surface universality class we find the expected asymptotic equivalence of Dirichlet and open boundary conditions. To test the quality of our method we confirm the analytical results for periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions.