Casimir Physics School and Workshop 2012 from 5 Mar 2012 through 16 Mar 2012 Scientific organizers Diego Dalvit (Los Alamos, USA) George Palasantzas (Groningen, Netherlands) Serge Reynaud (Paris, France) Vitaly Svetovoy (Enschede, Netherlands) Description and aim - The startling realization that was emerged in the last century is that the void, that is, the complete absence of any detectable particles or energy is far from empty. Theoretically this conclusion originated around 1900 from the work of Max Planck and the early pioneers of quantum theory. A consequence of the quantum behavior of electromagnetic fields is that each field mode contains intrinsic ‘zero point’ energy ћω/2 when it is in the lowest energy state. Thus a field containing no photons - empty space - has a huge intrinsic energy density. This zero-point energy or vacuum energy has numerous observable consequences in atomic or sub- atomic physics. Moreover, two mirrors facing each other in vacuum are mutually attracted to each other by the disturbance of quantum vacuum fluctuations – a phenomenon first predicted in 1948 by the Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir. Though the Casimir effect dates back more than 60 years, the field of Casimir physics has attracted an increasing attention in the last fifteen years, thanks to new experimental techniques based on recent technological developments in nanotechnology including atomic force microscopy, and MEMS devices. A number of novel experiments concerning the static or dynamic Casimir effect have been developed in the last few years in USA and Europe. New developments have been devoted to observations of the Casimir force in complex geometries and novel materials (phase-change materials, nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, liquids, metamaterials etc.) with a view to applications, especially in nano-machines. Another focus is on fundamentals such as what the force can tell us about the quantum vacuum, and for example any possible relationship between zero-point energy and cosmological observations such as dark energy. In addition sufficiently accurate measurements could reveal a departure from Newtonian gravity at sub-micron separations providing insight on the new physics expected to lie beyond the standard model. On the theoretical side, Casimir effect calculations use numerous different methods ranging from quantum field theoretical approaches and renormalization methods to quantum statistical methods and scattering approaches to the wordline formalism. The importance of the Casimir field, in both fundamental physics and technology has been recognized in Europe and has attracted funding from the EuropeanCommission (e.g. the NANOCASE project) and now the ESF CASIMIR network that aims to foster pan-European collaborations on established problems and new trends in Casimir physics in all subject areas including surface and materials science, nanotechnologies to cosmology and quantum gravity. The combined school-workshop aimed to explore developments on a global scale in the Casimir field as an education and research forum in Casimir physics. The school covered the basics in depth, general formalism, experiments and moving into the more advanced technical aspects, with a clear overview of the state of the art in the field. For this purpose we gave able time for young researchers and advanced researchers to interact in class and acquainted with each other and initiated interactions and further collaborations (starting from the school and further focused by the workshop. Subsequently, therefore, the school was followed by a workshop with the aim to further connect people doing current advanced work in the field of surface force measurements and micro/nano technologies with those who work on current problems of quantum field theory derived forces and to expand their understanding of these forces in common problems from micro/nano technologies to gravity and laboratory cosmology: Casimir school - Based partly on the CASIMIR network program, the list of topics for the school are grouped into the following three major topics: i) Casimir effect: measurement and theory, ii) Challenges in vacuum properties, iii) Casimir interfaces School organization (see Appendix 1 for program) •Class lectures: 120 minutes including discussion/questions (for every 2 hour classlecture there will be 15 minutes break). In total they were given 9 lectures (see appendix 1 for School program) accompanied with exercise/homework sessions. •Exercises/homeworks were done after the lectures •Talks and Solutions are posted on the Lorentz Center website of the event: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2012/500/info.php3?wsid=500 Casimir workshop - The workshop focused on the current advanced Casimir research and common topics including: Progress in Casimir forces for complex geometries - novel topologies; Measurements and calculations of Casimir forces for new materials – MEMS/NEMS; Electrostatics in force measurement: patch effects and contact potentials; Lateral and repulsive Casimir forces; Measurements and manifestations of the thermal Casimir forces, Casimir-Polder interactions with atoms, molecules or nanoparticles Vacuum energy in quantum field theory and gravitation Workshop organization (see Appendix 2 for program) •Invited talk: 50 minutes including discussion (16 talks) •Junior Invited talk: 30 minutes including discussion (12 talks) •Talks are posted on the Lorentz Center website of the event: http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2012/500/info.php3?wsid=500 Participants We had in total 69 participants (Appendix 3). The participants associated with group members from the RNP CASIMIR (C) were 51. The origin of participants was from: France, Netherland, Germany, Spain, Austria, United Kingdom, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, USA. Therefore, the participation covered Europe- ASIA-AMERICA giving a global character for our event. Discussion – Future of RNP Casimir Discussion took place March 13 on the future of the RNP CASIMIR. The decision is to continue on the major focus points of the present scherne and include more application related topics. Moreover in the future efforts we can further enhance the close collaboration-participation of other Casimir groups from USA, Latin America, and Asia. Significant ties were developed during this school-workshop towards this direction. It would be the ultimate aim to achieve the formation of a CASIMIR society with global appeal in science and technology. Appendix 1: School program Appendix 2 : Workshop Program Appendix 3: Participants school and workshop */C: Member of a group related to CASIMIR RNP 1. Markus Arndt (Vienna, Austria)/C 2. Manuel Asorey (Zaragoza, Spain) /C 3. Nicola Bartolo (Trento (TN), Italy)/C 4. Gabriel Barton (Brighton, United Kingdom)/C 5. Ryan Behunin (Santa Fe, United States) 6. Robert Bennett (Brighton, United Kingdom/C) 7. Giuseppe Bimonte (Napoli, Italy)/C 8. Dirk Bouwmeester (Leiden, Netherlands)/C 9. Caterina Braggio (Padova, Italy)/C 10. Iver Brevik (Trondheim, Norway)/C 11. Etienne Brion (Orsay, France)/C 12. Wijnand Broer (Groningen, Netherlands)/C 13. Stefan Yoshi Buhmann (London, United Kingdom)/C 14. David Butcher (London, United Kingdom)/C 15. Salvatore Butera (Palermo, Italy)/C 16. Antoine Canaguier-Durand (Strasbourg, France)/C 17. Roberto Catini (Fermo, Italy)/C 18. Claudio Ccapa Ttira (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil) 19. Ho Bun Chan (Hong Kong, Hong Kong) 20. Joel Chevrier (France, France)/C 21. Diego Dalvit (Los Alamos, United States) 22. Otajanov Davran (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) 23. Sofia Isabel De Carvalho Ribeiro (London, United Kingdom)/C 24. Ricardo Decca (Indianapolis, United States) 25. Gabriel Dufour (Paris, France)/C 26. Claudia Eberlein (Brighton, United Kingdom)/C 27. Emilio Elizalde (Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain)/C 28. Simen Adnoy Ellingsen (Trondheim, Norway)/C 29. Thorsten Emig (Orsay, France)/C 30. Jofre Espigule (Fortia, Spain)/C 31. Raul Esquivel -Sirvent (Mexico, Mexico)/C 32. Cyriaque Genet (Strasbourg, France)/C 33. Ramin Golestanian (Oxford, Unit ed Kingdom)/C 34. Romain Guérout (Paris, France)/C 35. Harald Haakh (Potsdam, Germany)/C 36. Carsten Henkel (Potsdam, Germany) /C 37. Francesco Intravaia (Los Alamos, United States) 38. Norio Inui (Himeji, Japan) 39. Steven Johnson (Cambridge, United States) 40. Thomas Juffmann (Vienna, Austria)/C 41. Grzegorz Lach (Warsaw, Poland) 42. Astrid Lambrecht (Paris, France)/C 43. Johann Lussange (Paris, France)/C 44. Paulo Maia Neto (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 45. Kimball Milton (Norman, United States) 46. Umar Mohideen (Riverside, CA, United States) 47. Valery Nesvizhevsky (Grenoble, France)/C 48. Anh Truc Nguyen (Amsterdam, Netherlands)/C 49. George Palasantzas (Groningen, Netherlands)/C 50. Lev Pitaevskii (Trento, Italy)/C 51. Arsalan Pourkabirian (Gothenburg, Sweden) 52. Thomas Reisinger (Bergen, Norway)/C 53. Serge Reynaud (Paris, France)/C 54. Pablo Rodriguez-Lopez (Leganes, Spain)/C 55. Peter Schall (Amsterdam, Netherlands)/C 56. Stefan Scheel (London, United Kingdom)/C 57. Marco Schäfer (Jena, Germany)/C 58. René Sedmik (Amsterdam, Netherlands)/C 59. Bo E. Sernelius (Linköping, Sweden)/C 60. Efi (Ephraim) Shahmoon (Rehovot, Israel) 61. Michaël Simoen (Gothenburg, Sweden) 62. Vitaly Svetovoy (Enschede, Netherlands)/C 63. Mubassira Syed (Enschede, Netherlands) /C 64. Bart van Tiggelen (Grenoble, France)/C 65. Pieter Jan van Zwol (Grenoble cedex 9, France)/C 66. Alexandre Vial (Bergen, Norway)/C 67. Hua-Yao Wu (Newark, United States) 68. Xianghua Zhai (Shanghai, China) 69. Robert Zietal (Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom)/C Total participants: 69 Participants from the RNP CASIMIR (C): 51 .