Vacuum Torque Without Anisotropy: Switchable Casimir Torque Between Altermagnets
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.14381 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 20 Jan 2026] Title:Vacuum Torque Without Anisotropy: Switchable Casimir Torque Between Altermagnets Authors:Zixuan Dai, Qing-Dong Jiang View a PDF of the paper titled Vacuum Torque Without Anisotropy: Switchable Casimir Torque Between Altermagnets, by Zixuan Dai and Qing-Dong Jiang View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Casimir torque is conventionally associated with explicit breaking of rotational symmetry, arising from material dielectric anisotropy, geometric asymmetry, or externally applied fields that themselves break rotational invariance. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally different mechanism: an axially symmetric magnetic field can generate a Casimir torque by inducing an axially asymmetric Casimir energy - and can even reverse the torque's sign. Focusing on two-dimensional altermagnets, we show that a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane - while preserving in-plane rotational symmetry - activates an orientation-dependent vacuum interaction through the combined crystalline symmetry $\mathrm{C_n T}$ inherent to altermagnetic order. The resulting torque emerges continuously and scales quadratically with the magnetic field strength. We further analyze its temperature and distance dependence, revealing scaling behaviors that are qualitatively different from those found in uniaxial bulk materials. Our results identify time-reversal symmetry breaking as a powerful route for engineering both the sign and strength of Casimir torque and establish altermagnets as an exciting platform for exploring phenomena driven by vacuum quantum fluctuations. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall); Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2601.14381 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.14381v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.14381 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Zixuan Dai [view email] [v1] Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:00:05 UTC (927 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Vacuum Torque Without Anisotropy: Switchable Casimir Torque Between Altermagnets, by Zixuan Dai and Qing-Dong JiangView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.other physics physics.optics References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)