VDSP Internship projects - Spring Call 2025

About the Internship

The Vienna Doctoral School in Physics offers selected MSc students from inside and outside of Austria to be immersed in real world research with experts in their field for 2-6 months between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026.

Find more details here.

Topic: Probing fluctuation-induced forces in non-equilibrium fluids

Casimir forces emerge when fluctuating fields are confined, as seen between uncharged, conducting plates in a vacuum or in fluids near a critical point. Out-of-equilibrium fluids exhibit even stronger fluctuations, which theory predicts should generate remarkably large Casimir-like forces in confined spaces. However, measuring these forces experimentally remains a challenge. In this project, we aim to overcome this barrier by using advanced optical techniques to track the interactions of colloidal particles suspended in a complex medium with giant fluctuations driven by diffusion or thermophoresis. Our goal is to provide the first direct experimental evidence of non-equilibrium Casimir-like forces - offering exciting new insights into fluctuation-induced interactions in soft matter physics.