Electromagnetic fluctuations in non-equilibrium: Casimir forces and heat transfer

It is well known that quantum Casimir forces play an important role in micro- or nanostructures. Recently, the role of temperature in thermal non-equilibrium raised theoretical as well as experimental interest. If the objects are held at different temperatures, the interactions depend on all temperatures in the system, and show many effects which are absent in equilibrium. Additionally, the objects exchange thermal energy by electromagnetic fields, known as radiative heat transfer, which is fundamentally different from macroscopic cases described by the well known laws of Planck or Stefan-Boltzmann. We discuss recent theoretical progress describing such effects, and illustrate the dependence of both quantities on the shapes as well as the distances of the objects.