  We study the lateral Casimir force experienced by a particle that rotates
near a planar surface. The origin of this force lies in the symmetry breaking
induced by the particle rotation in the vacuum and thermal fluctuations of its
dipole moment, and, therefore, in contrast to lateral Casimir forces previously
described in the literature for corrugated surfaces, it exists despite the
translational invariance of the planar surface. Working within the framework of
fluctuational electrodynamics, we derive analytical expressions for the lateral
force and analyze its dependence on the geometrical and material properties of
the system. In particular, we show that the direction of the force can be
controlled by adjusting the particle-surface distance, which may be exploited
as a new mechanism to manipulate nanoscale objects.
