Universal Casimir interactions in the sphere–sphere geometry

International Journal of Modern Physics A, vol. 37

Abstract

We study universal Casimir interactions in two configurations which appear as dual to each other. The first involves spheres described by the Drude model and separated by vacuum while the second involves dielectric spheres immersed in a salted solution at distances larger than the Debye screening length. In both cases, the long-distance limit, equivalently the high-temperature limit, is dominated by the effect of low-frequency transverse magnetic thermal fluctuations. They are independent of the details of dielectric functions of materials, due to the finite conductivity of metals in the former case and of salted water in the latter one. They also show universality properties in their dependence on geometric dimensions in relation to an approximate conformal invariance of the reduced free energy.

Authors 6

1. Tanja Schoger

   University of Augsburg

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

2. Benjamin Spreng

   University of California, Davis

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

3. Gert‐Ludwig Ingold

   University of Augsburg

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

4. Astrid Lambrecht Aachen

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich and RWTH Aachen University, 52062 Aachen, Germany

5. Paulo A. Maia Neto

   Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

   Affiliation as printed

   Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68528, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-972, Brazil

6. Serge Reynaud

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Collège de France · Laboratoire Kastler Brossel · École Normale Supérieure - PSL · Sorbonne Université

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, ENS-PSL, Collége de France, Sorbonne Université, Campus Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France