Casimir versus Helmholtz fluctuation induced force in { the Nagle}-Kardar model: Exact results

Abstract

When used to describe \textit{finite} systems the {conjugate} statistical-mechanical ensembles are \textit{not} equivalent. This has physical implications for the behavior of the fluctuation induced forces pertinent to the different ensembles. Here, {we study the Nagle-Kardar model within the grand-canonical ensemble (GCE) and the canonical ensemble (CE) (with conserved total magnetization) for periodic boundary conditions (PBC)}. {We focus on two fluctuation-induce forces: the Casimir force (CF) in the GCE and the Helmholtz force (HF) in the CE}. In the infinite system limit the model exhibits a critical line, which ends at a tricritical point. Unexpectedly, the critical Casimir force (CCF) is \textit{repulsive} near the critical line and tricritical point, decaying rapidly upon departure from those two regions and becoming \textit{attractive}. This violates the widely-accepted ``boundary condition rule,'' which presumes that the CCF is attractive for equivalent boundary conditions (BC) and repulsive for conflicting BC. For the HF we find that it also changes sign as a function of temperature and the magnetization. We conclude, that CCF and HF have a behavior quite different from each other as a function of the tunable parameters (temperature, magnetic field, or magnetization) of the model. This dependence allows {for the control of the} \textit{sign} of these forces, as well as their magnitude.