Nanofluidics meets condensed-matter physics: challenges and perspectives at the Quantum Plumbing Lab - Nikita Kavokine (EPFL, Switzerland)

The hydrodynamic wall has traditionally been considered a featureless object, whose only role is to provide a boundary for the fluid flow. Yet, there is now ample evidence that at nanometer scales, fluid flows are sensitive to the wall's internal degrees of freedom. Recently, we have developed a field theory formalism that captures the interaction between interfacial liquid flows and the wall’s electronic excitations, in the form of a phenomenon termed quantum friction. In this talk, I will show how quantum friction theory both sheds light on existing experiments, and predicts new couplings between liquid flows and electronic currents, with potential applications at the water-energy nexus. I will also highlight the many questions that it leaves unanswered, along with the experimental program that we are deploying to solve them at the Quantum Plumbing Lab.

Contact Romain Lhermerout