2010/05/29 by Stephan Schlamminger, C. Hagedorn, Charles A. Hagedorn +1
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Brownian motion #Classical mechanics #Gaussian #Mathematics #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Mechanics #Monte Carlo method #Oscillation (cell signaling) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Random walk #Statistical physics #Torsion spring #cond-mat.stat-mech #gr-qc #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.81.123008
published as Phys.Rev.D81:123008,2010 · 5 pages 5 figures accepted for PRD; typo in equation 3 and figure 1 fixed
arxiv created 2010/05/29 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/11 · arxiv updated 2014/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Molecular flow gas damping of mechanical motion in confined geometries, and its associated noise, is important in a variety of fields, including precision measurement, gravitational wave detection, and microelectromechanical systems devices. We used two torsion balance instruments to measure the strength and distance-dependence of ``squeeze film'' damping. Measured quality factors derived from free decay of oscillation are consistent with gas particle superdiffusion in L'evy walks and inconsistent with those expected from traditional Gaussian random walk particle motion. The distance-dependence of squeeze film damping observed in our experiments is in agreement with a parameter-free Monte Carlo simulation. The squeeze film damping of the motion of a plate suspended a distance d away from a parallel surface scales with a fractional power between d^\ensuremath-1 and d^\ensuremath-2.