Abstract

The acoustic radiation force (ARF) is, in general, defined as a period-average force exerted on the medium by a sound wave. Various aspects of this phenomenon have been discussed by numerous authors, beginning from Lord Rayleigh. Since 1990s studies of ARF enjoy a renaissance, primarily due to the broad biomedical applications. In particular, the radiation force produced by a focused ultrasound beam acts as a virtual “finger” for remote probing elastic properties of internal anatomical structures and obtaining diagnostic information about possible lesions. Another fast developing area is using ARF for manipulating microparticles (up to bacterial sizes) and microbubbles in resonators for separation and visualization. There remain many relevant theoretical challenges as well. This presentation gives a brief review of the problem.