Dear colleagues, this week (tomorrow) we are looking forward to a talk by Ephraim Shahmoon. Kind regards, Richard and Swati ITAMP Topical Lunch Discussion Date: Friday, March 20th Time: 12:00-1:30 pm Pizza will be served. Location: B-106 @ Center for Astrophysics (60 Garden Street) Directions: after entering the lobby of the CfA, turn right to enter the hallway of the B building. In the hallway, turn right again, and B-106 is there. Speaker: Ephraim Shahmoon, Harvard University Title: Dipolar interactions in waveguides: From Casimir forces to nonlinear optics Abstract: Dipolar interactions lie at the basis of a variety of phenomena in physics and chemistry, ranging from fundamental quantum vacuum forces and energy transfer all the way to emerging quantum technologies. This talk concerns the important possibility to drastically modify these dipole-dipole interactions, thus potentially affecting much of the above phenomena: Since the interactions between dipoles are mediated by (virtual) photon modes, they can be enhanced by considering dipoles embedded in geometries that confine these modes. In this context, I will present our results on the possibilities for giant quantum vacuum forces via transmission lines, and for extremely nonlocal optical nonlinearities based on atomic interactions in a fiber. --------------------------- Dr. Richard Schmidt Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (ITAMP) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics MS-14 60 Garden St. Cambridge, MA 02138 U.S.A. richard.schmidt(a)cfa.harvard.edu Tel. +1 (617) 496-7610 Fax +1 (617) 496-7668