From Brownian motion formalism to fluctuation-induced force in a general fluctuating medium

Abstract

Starting from a microscopic approach and using the formalism of quantum Brownian motion, partition function of a system composed of two separated pieces of anisotropic matter and a fluctuating medium in finite temperature is obtained rigorously. A general expression for fluctuation-induced free energy between the separated anisotropic pieces of matter is obtained and it is shown that in the framework of induced-force, the free energy of mean-force and effective free energy are equivalent.