FIBER-TOP TECHNOLOGY (Looking back at 10 years of research on the Casimir effect, the role of mechanics in life sciences, an exotic model for dark energy, and the application of electronic circuits in the social sciences)

by Davide Iannuzzi (Department of Physics and Astronomy Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Tuesday 19 Apr 2016, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

At times, a stroke of luck allows us to create a connection between our most fundamental research efforts and an open problem that part of our society is interested to solved (and vice versa). In this seminar, I will talk about my own experience with this process. I will start by introducing our research program on the Casimir effect (the attraction between electrically n! eutral objects generated by the quantum fluctuations of vacuum) to show how an annoying spurious signal pushed me to draw, on a Friday afternoon, the very first sketch of what people today refer to as “the fiber-top cantilever”. I will then briefly comment on the course of actions that brought this technology all the way from my blackboard to the market, focusing on a few aspects that may shed light on why we, scientists, are not that good in technology transfer processes. I will further elaborate on how my group is currently attempting to add more functionalities to fiber-top devices to better understand the role of mechanics in cells and tissues. I will then go back to fundamental research to discuss the role of this new technology in Casimir force measurements. Finally, I will show a couple of examples where, using the acquired engineering skills, we have been able to fold back onto other fundamental physics topics of our interest: the design of a detector that could set! new constraints on dark energy chameleon theories, and the at! tempt to use lock-in feedback techniques in the social sciences.