“Vacuum” friction and heat exchange of a nano- and a microparticle with a solid surface

The most general relativistic formulas for the tangential force of the fluctuation-electromagnetic interaction and the rate of thermal heating of a spherical neutral particle moving in vacuum near the surface of a condensed medium are obtained for the first time in dipole approximation. It is shown that the existence of a fluctuation-induced magnetic moment for a conducting particle is responsible for a considerable increase in the vacuum heat-exchange rate as compared to contact and radiative heat transfer (in accordance with the Stefan law). It is noted that the coincidence of the absorption peaks for the particle and the surface in the microwave range can explain the damping forces observed for nanoprobes in the dynamic mode of the atomic force microscope.