Force on a moving object in an ideal quantum gas
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Publication Details
Author list: Wittaya Kanchanapusakit, Pattarapon Tanalikhit
Publisher: American Association of Physics Teachers
Publication year: 2023
Journal: American Journal of Physics (0002-9505)
Volume number: 91
Issue number: 11
Start page: 932
End page: 935
Number of pages: 4
ISSN: 0002-9505
Languages: English-United States (EN-US)
Abstract
We consider a heavy external object moving in an ideal gas of light particles. Collisions with the gas particles transfer momentum to the object, leading to a force that is proportional to the object's velocity but in the opposite direction. In an ideal classical gas at temperature $T$, the force acting on the object is proportional to $\sqrt{T}$. Quantum statistics causes a deviation from the $\sqrt{T}$-dependence and shows that the force scales with $T^2$ at low temperatures. At $T=0$, the force vanishes in a Bose gas but is finite in a Fermi gas.
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