Casimir self-stress in a dielectric sphere

Yael Avni; Ulf Leonhardt

doi:10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002

Casimir self-stress in a dielectric sphere

Yael Avni, Ulf Leonhardt^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Physics of Complex Systems

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The dielectric sphere has been an important test case for understanding and calculating the vacuum force of a dielectric body onto itself. Here we develop a method for computing this force in homogeneous spheres of arbitrary dielectric properties embedded in arbitrary homogeneous backgrounds, assuming only that both materials are isotropic and dispersionless. Our results agree with known special cases; most notably we reproduce the prediction of Boyer and Schwinger et al. of a repulsive Casimir force of a perfectly reflecting shell. Our results disagree with the literature in the dilute limit. We argue that the Casimir self-stress cannot be regarded as due to pair-wise Casimir–Polder interactions, but rather due to reflections of virtual electromagnetic waves.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	326-340
Number of pages	15
Journal	Annals of Physics
Volume	395
Early online date	7 Jun 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002
Publication status	Published - Aug 2018

Funding

We would like to thank David Andelman, Jonathan Drori, Efi Efrati, Itay Griniasty, Moti Milgrom and Yuval Rosenberg for stimulating discussions. Our work was supported by the European Research Council (TRANSFORMOPTICS) and the Israel Science Foundation (Circle of Light) , a research grant from Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rosenmayer and from Mr. and Mrs. James Nathan, and the Murray B. Koffler Professorial Chair.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{313ef2781ddb4f7e989722935bbd68a6,

title = "Casimir self-stress in a dielectric sphere",

abstract = "The dielectric sphere has been an important test case for understanding and calculating the vacuum force of a dielectric body onto itself. Here we develop a method for computing this force in homogeneous spheres of arbitrary dielectric properties embedded in arbitrary homogeneous backgrounds, assuming only that both materials are isotropic and dispersionless. Our results agree with known special cases; most notably we reproduce the prediction of Boyer and Schwinger et al. of a repulsive Casimir force of a perfectly reflecting shell. Our results disagree with the literature in the dilute limit. We argue that the Casimir self-stress cannot be regarded as due to pair-wise Casimir–Polder interactions, but rather due to reflections of virtual electromagnetic waves.",

author = "Yael Avni and Ulf Leonhardt",

year = "2018",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002",

language = "English",

volume = "395",

pages = "326--340",

journal = "Annals of Physics",

issn = "0003-4916",

publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Casimir self-stress in a dielectric sphere

AU - Avni, Yael

AU - Leonhardt, Ulf

PY - 2018/8

Y1 - 2018/8

N2 - The dielectric sphere has been an important test case for understanding and calculating the vacuum force of a dielectric body onto itself. Here we develop a method for computing this force in homogeneous spheres of arbitrary dielectric properties embedded in arbitrary homogeneous backgrounds, assuming only that both materials are isotropic and dispersionless. Our results agree with known special cases; most notably we reproduce the prediction of Boyer and Schwinger et al. of a repulsive Casimir force of a perfectly reflecting shell. Our results disagree with the literature in the dilute limit. We argue that the Casimir self-stress cannot be regarded as due to pair-wise Casimir–Polder interactions, but rather due to reflections of virtual electromagnetic waves.

AB - The dielectric sphere has been an important test case for understanding and calculating the vacuum force of a dielectric body onto itself. Here we develop a method for computing this force in homogeneous spheres of arbitrary dielectric properties embedded in arbitrary homogeneous backgrounds, assuming only that both materials are isotropic and dispersionless. Our results agree with known special cases; most notably we reproduce the prediction of Boyer and Schwinger et al. of a repulsive Casimir force of a perfectly reflecting shell. Our results disagree with the literature in the dilute limit. We argue that the Casimir self-stress cannot be regarded as due to pair-wise Casimir–Polder interactions, but rather due to reflections of virtual electromagnetic waves.

U2 - 10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002

DO - 10.1016/j.aop.2018.06.002

M3 - Article

SN - 0003-4916

VL - 395

SP - 326

EP - 340

JO - Annals of Physics

JF - Annals of Physics

ER -

Casimir self-stress in a dielectric sphere

Abstract

Funding

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this