In a recent paper, Geyer, Klimchitskaya, and Mostepanenko [Phys. Rev. A 67, 062102 (2003); quant-ph/0306038] proposed the final solution of the problem of temperature correction to the Casimir force between real metals. The basic idea was that one cannot use the dielectric permittivity in the frequency region where a real current may arise leading to Joule heating of the metal. Instead, the surface impedance approach is proposed as a solution of all contradictions. The purpose of this comment is to show that (i) the main idea contradicts to the fluctuation dissipation theorem, (ii) the proposed method to calculate the force gives wrong value of the temperature correction since the contribution of low frequency fluctuations is calculated with the impedance which is not applicable at low frequencies. In the impedance approach the right result for the reflection coefficients in the n=0 term of the Lifshitz formula is given.
We show that exact results are obtained for the calculation of Casimir forces between arbitrary materials using the concept of surface impedances, obtaining in a trivial way the force in the limit of perfect conductors and also Lifshitz formula in the limit of semi-infinite media. As an example we present a full and rigorous calculation of the Casimir force between two metallic half-spaces described by a hydrodynamic nonlocal dielectric response.
The impedance boundary condition is used to calculate the Casimir force in configurations of two parallel plates and a shpere (spherical lens) above a plate at both zero and nonzero temperature. The impedance approach allows one to find the Casimir force between the realistic test bodies regardless of the electromagnetic fluctuations inside the media. Although this approach is an approximate one, it has wider areas of application than the Lifshitz theory of the Casimir force. The general formulas of the impedance approach to the theory of the Casimir force are given and the formal substitution…
The problem with the temperature dependence of the Casimir force is investigated. Specifically, the entropy behavior in the low temperature limit, which caused debates in the literature, is analyzed. It is stressed that the behavior of the relaxation frequency in the $T\to0$ limit does not play a physical role since the anomalous skin effect dominates in this range. In contrast with the previous works, where the approximate Leontovich impedance was used for analysis of nonlocal effects, we give description of the problem in terms of exact nonlocal impedances. It is found that the Casimir entro…
The surface impedance approach to the description of the thermal Casimir effect in the case of real metals is elaborated starting from the free energy of oscillators. The Lifshitz formula expressed in terms of the dielectric permittivity depending only on frequency is shown to be inapplicable in the frequency region where a real current may arise leading to Joule heating of the metal. The standard concept of a fluctuating electromagnetic field on such frequencies meets difficulties when used as a model for the zero-point oscillations or thermal photons in the thermal equilibrium inside metals.…
We compute the Casimir Energy of a spherical region using a Surface Impedance approach. We characterize the Surface Impedance of the boundary using plasma model. Exact analytical formulae are obtained by means of the zeta function regularization method and all the divergencies are explicitly computed. We find that it is possible to have negative Casimir energy for some range of values of the relevant parameter. Limits of applicability of the model are discussed.
The surface impedance approach is discussed in connection with the precise calculation of the Casimir force between metallic plates. It allows to take into account the nonlocal connection between the current density and electric field inside of metals. In general, a material has to be described by two impedances $Z_{s}(ω,q)$ and $Z_{p}(ω,q)$ corresponding to two different polarization states. In contrast with the approximate Leontovich impedance they depend not only on frequency $ω$ but also on the wave vector along the plate $q$. In this paper only the nonlocal effects happening at frequencie…
Linear in temperature correction to the Casimir force is discussed. The correction is important for small separations between bodies tested in the recent experiments and disappears in the case of perfect conductors.
We reply to the "Comment on 'The Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between magnetic metallic mirrors'" [arXiv:1604.06432]. We believe the comment misrepresents our papers, and fails to provide a plausible resolution to the conflict between theory and experiment.
We show that the claims expressed in the Comment arXiv:0810.3244v1 by R.S. Decca et al against our paper, D.A.R. Dalvit and S.K. Lamoreaux, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 101}, 163203 (2008), are wrong and manifestly inconsistent with basic principles of statistical physics.
We comment on a recently published measurement of the Casimir force for distances in the 0.6 to 6 micrometer range between two Au surfaces (Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 5(1997)) and the net discrepancy reported for the comparison with theoretical predictions (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5475 (1998)).
Recently D. A. R. Dalvit and S. K. Lamoreaux arXiv:0805.1676 [Phys. Rev. Lett. v.101, 163203 (2008)] suggested the modification of the reflection coefficients in the Lifshitz theory taking into account the screening effects and diffusion currents. We demonstrate that the suggested modification is thermodynamically and experimentally inconsistent.
We make remarks on Hoodbhoy's paper [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 38 (2005) 10253-10256] by pointing out the single plate considered could be elastic and there will be deformations once the net (one-sided) force being upon the plate which will change the position-dependent potential imposed by Hoodbhoy.
In a recent paper (M. Bostrom and Bo E. Sernelius, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4757 (2000)) the combined effect of finite conductivity and finite temperature on the Casimir force is analyzed, and significant deviations from other theoretical results and a recent experiment are obtained. In this Comment, I show that the extrapolation to zero frequency is incorrect because the authors have neglected that the wavenumber and frequency of the electromagentic mode must simultaneously appraoch zero
A recent theoretical calculation shows that the Casimir force between two parallel plates can be repulsive for plates with nontrivial magnetic properties (O. Kenneth et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 033001 (2002)). According to the authors, the effect may be observed with known materials, such as ferrites and garnets, and it might be possible to engineer micro- or nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS or NEMS) that could take advantage of a short range repulsive force. Here we show that on the contrary the Casimir force between two parallel plates in vacuum at micron and submicron distance is always…
We give a rigorous analytical derivation of low-temperature behavior of the Casimir entropy in the framework of the Lifshitz formula combined with the Drude dielectric function. An earlier result that the Casimir entropy at zero temperature is not equal to zero and depends on the parameters of the system is confirmed, i.e. the third law of thermodynamics (the Nernst heat theorem) is violated. We illustrate the resolution of this thermodynamical puzzle in the context of the surface impedance approach by several calculations of the thermal Casimir force and entropy for both real metals and diele…
The low-temperature asymptotic expressions for the Casimir interaction between two real metals described by Leontovich surface impedance are obtained in the framework of thermal quantum field theory. It is shown that the Casimir entropy computed using the impedance of infrared optics vanishes in the limit of zero temperature. By contrast, the Casimir entropy computed using the impedance of the Drude model attains at zero temperature a positive value which depends on the parameters of a system, i.e., the Nernst heat theorem is violated. Thus, the impedance of infrared optics withstands the ther…
The recently suggested modification of the transverse electric contribution to the Lifshitz formula (S. K. Lamoreaux, arXiv:0801.1283) is discussed. We show that this modification is inconsistent with the data of two precise experiments, and violates the Nernst heat theorem. The preprint's suggestion concerning the resolution of the "apparent violation of the Third Law of Thermodynamics" is shown to be incorrect.
In a recent paper [C. Raabe and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 71, 013814 (2005)] an electromagnetic energy-momentum tensor is suggested as an alternative to the Abraham-Minkowski tensor and is applied to calculations of Casimir forces in planar geometries. We argue that the universality of the suggested tensor is doubtful; application of the Raabe-Welsch theory to a simple example in classical electrodynamics shows that their proposed tensor is unable to describe the situation in a simple way. We also show that modified Casimir forces acting on the cavity medium as prescribed by these authors suf…
Recently J.S. Hoye, I.Brevik, J.B. Aarseth, and K.A. Milton [Phys. Rev. E v.67, 056116 (2003); quant-ph/0212125] proposed that if the Lifshitz formula is combined with the Drude model, the transverse electric zero mode does not contribute to the result for real metals and there arises a linear temperature correction to the Casimir force at small temperatures. The authors claim that in spite of the fact that the Casimir entropy in their approach is negative, the Nernst heat theorem is satisfied. In the present Comment we show that the authors' conclusion regarding the Nernst heat theorem is in …
Recently Guerout et al. [Phys. Rev. E, v.93, 022108 (2016)] advocated that the lossless plasma model has to be redefined as the limit of the Drude model when the relaxation parameter goes to zero. It was claimed that the previously used plasma model cannot correctly describe the Casimir pressure between two plates made of both nonmagnetic and magnetic metals and has to be replaced with the redefined one. We show that the suggested redefinition does not satisfy necessary physical requirements imposed on the dielectric permittivity. We also present a plausible explanation to the fact that the lo…
We have reviewed the Comment of Geyer et al. [arXiv:0708.1548] concerning our recent work [Phys. Rev. A 75, 060102 (R) (2007)], and while we disagree with their criticisms, we acknowledge them for giving us the opportunity to add interesting addition material and a more detailed description of our experiment. We describe further our calculation and explain why a more sophisticated model is not warranted. We also present detailed experiments on the effects of electrostatic forces in our measurements and show that the contribution due to work function differences is small and that the residual e…
We investigate repulsive Casimir force between slabs containing left-handed materials with controllable electromagnetic properties. The sign of Casimir force is determined by the electric and magnetic properties of the materials, and it is shown that the formation of the repulsive force is related to the wave impedances of two slabs. The sign change of the Casimir force as a function of the distance is studied. Special emphasis is put on the restoring Casimir force which may be found to exist between perfectly conducting material and metamaterial slabs. This restoring force is a natural power …
It is shown that recent criticism by C. R. Hagen (hep-th/9902057) questioning the validity of stress tensor treatments of the Casimir energy for space divided into two parts by a spherical boundary is without foundation.
We demonstrate that the approach by Rodrigues et al. (PRL, v.96, 100402, 2006) to the description of the lateral Casimir force between corrugated surfaces is in disagreement with a path-integral theory by Emig et al. (PRA, v.67, 022114, 2003), and the approximations used are not appropriate for comparison to experiment.
Recently D. Garcia-Sanches, K. Y. Fong, H. Bhaskaran, S. Lamoreaux, and H. X. Tang [Phys. Rev. Lett. v.109, 027202 (2012)] claimed that the frequency shift of an oscillator under the influence of the residual electric and Casimir forces is best described by the Drude model approach to the Casimir force and excludes the plasma model approach. We demonstrate that calculations in support of this claim are performed incorrectly and that the measured data are in strong disagreement with both theoretical approaches to the Casimir force, thus, suggesting the presence of an unaccounted systematic erro…
I show that reflection positivity implies that the force between any mirror pair of charge-conjugate probes of the quantum vacuum is attractive. This generalizes a recent theorem of Kenneth and Klich to interacting quantum fields, to arbitrary semiclassical bodies, and to quantized probes with non-overlapping wavefunctions. I also prove that the torques on charge-conjugate probes tend always to rotate them into a mirror-symmetric position.
The applicability of the Lifshitz formula is discussed to the case of two thick parallel plates made of real metal. The usual description of the zero-point vacuum oscillations on the background of the frequency-dependent dielectric permittivity is shown to be in contradiction with thermodynamics. Instead, the Lifshitz formula for the Casimir free energy should be reformulated in terms of the reflection coefficients containing the surface impedance instead of the dielectric permittivity. This approach is presently confirmed experimentally by precision measurements of the van der Waals and Casim…
Recently W. J. Kim, M. Brown-Hayes, D. A. R. Dalvit, J. H. Brownell, and R. Onofrio [Phys. Rev. A, v.78, 036102(R) (2008)] performed electrostatic calibrations for a plane plate above a centimeter-size spherical lens at separations down to 20-30 nm and observed "anomalous behavior". It was found that the gradient of the electrostatic force does not depend on separation as predicted on the basis of a pure Coulombian contribution. Some hypotheses which could potentially explain the deviation from the expected behavior were considered, and qualitative arguments in favor of the influence of patch …
Recently Yampol'skii et al. [Phys. Rev. A v.82, 032511 (2010)] advocated that Lifshitz theory is not applicable when the characteristic wavelength of the fluctuating electromagnetic field, responsible for the thermal correction to the Casimir force, is larger than the size of the metal test bodies. It was claimed that this is the case in experiments which exclude Lifshitz theory combined with the Drude model. We calculate the wavelengths of the evanescent waves giving the dominant contribution to the thermal correction and we find that they are much smaller than the sizes of the test bodies. T…
Transmission-line waveguides can mediate long-range fluctuation-induced forces between neutral objects. We present two approaches for the description of these forces between electric components embedded in transmission-line circuits. The first, following ordinary quantum electrodynamics (QED), consists of the quantization and scattering theory of voltage and current waves inside transmission lines. The second approach relies on a simple circuit analysis with additional noisy current sources due to resistors in the circuit, as per the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT). We apply the latter a…
Recently V. A. Yampol'skii, S. Savel'ev, Z. A. Mayselis, S. S. Apostolov, and F. Nori [Phys. Rev. Lett., v.101, 096803 (2008),arXiv:0712.1395] claimed that the Casimir force between a thin metal film described by the Drude model and an ideal metal semispace can decrease with temperature whereas for bulk samples the Casimir force increases with temperature. On this basis the experimental observation of the decreasing temperature dependence of the Casimir force magnitude between a film and a bulk ideal metal was proposed. We demonstrate that, contrary to what is claimed by the authors, the magni…
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 220801 (2003)], V. Mkrtchian and co-workers calculated the radiation pressure force on a moving body, assuming the electromagnetic field to be at temperature $T,$ and the velocity to be much smaller than $c.$ They considered both dielectrics and conductors, and related the effect to Casimir dissipative forces. Here we claim that their approach may only apply in the Rayleigh-Ganz scattering regime, which corresponds to very small particles and/or electromagnetically rarefied media. Moreover, we argue that their interpretation in terms of the Casimir effe…
We extend the Lifshitz theory of the Casimir force to the case of two parallel magnetic metal plates possessing a spatially nonlocal dielectric response. By solving Maxwell equations in the configuration of an electromagnetic wave incident on the boundary plane of a magnetic metal semispace, the exact surface impedances are expressed in terms of its magnetic permeability and longitudinal and transverse dielectric functions. This allows application of the Lifshitz theory with reflection coefficients written via the surface impedances for calculation of the Casimir pressure between magnetic meta…
Temperature correction to the Casimir force is considered for real metals at low temperatures. With the temperature decrease the mean free path for electrons becomes larger than the field penetration depth. In this condition description of metals with the impedance of anomalous skin effect is shown to be more appropriate than with the permittivity. The effect is crucial for the temperature correction. It is demonstrated that in the zero frequency limit the reflection coefficients should coincide with those of ideal metal if we demand the entropy to be zero at T=0. All the other prescriptions d…
In a recent Comment, Decca et al. [Phys. Rev. A 79, 026101 (2009); arXiv:0809.3576] discussed the origin of the anomalies recently reported by us in Phys. Rev. A 78, 036102(R) (2008); arXiv:0812.0028 . Here we restate our view, corroborated by their considerations, that quantitative geometrical and electrostatic characterizations of the conducting surfaces (a topic not discussed explicitly in the literature until very recently) are critical for the assessment of precision and accuracy of the demonstration of the Casimir force and for deriving meaningful limits on the existence of Yukawian comp…
In Phys. Rev. {\bf E 70}, 047102 (2004), J.R. Torgerson and S.K. Lamoreaux investigated for the first time the real-frequency spectrum of finite temperature correction to the Casimir force, for metallic plates of finite conductivity. The very interesting result of this study is that the correction from the TE mode is dominated by low frequencies, for which the dielectric description of the metal is invalid. However, their analysis of the problem, based on more appropriate low-frequency metallic boundary conditions, uses an incorrect form of boundary conditions for TE modes. We repeat their ana…
Recently, Brevik et al. [Phys. Rev. E 71, 056101 (2005)] adduced arguments against the traditional approach to the thermal Casimir force between real metals and in favor of one of the alternative approaches. The latter assumes zero contribution from the transverse electric mode at zero frequency in qualitative disagreement with unity as given by the thermal quantum field theory for ideal metals. Those authors claim that their approach is consistent with experiments as well as with thermodynamics. We demonstrate that these conclusions are incorrect. We show specifically that their results are c…
We present the status of an experimental test for gravitational strength forces below 1 mm. Our experiment uses small 1 kilohertz oscillators as test masses, with a stiff counducting shield between them to suppress backgrounds. At the present sensitivity of approximately 1000 times gravitational strength, we see no evidence for new forces with interaction ranges between 75 microns and 1 mm. While the Casimir background is not expected to be significant at this range, an extension of the shielding technique we employ may be useful for reducing this background in experiments below a few microns.…
We present supplementary information on the recent indirect measurement of the Casimir pressure between two parallel plates using a micromachined oscillator. The equivalent pressure between the plates is obtained by means of the proximity force approximation after measuring the force gradient between a gold coated sphere and a gold coated plate. The data are compared with a new theoretical approach to the thermal Casimir force based on the use of the Lifshitz formula, combined with a generalized plasma-like dielectric permittivity which takes into account interband transitions of core electron…
Recently J.N. Munday and F. Capasso [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 75}, 060102(R) (2007); arXiv:0705.3793] claimed that they have performed a precision measurement of the Casimir force between a sphere and a plate coated with Au, both immersed in ethanol. The measurement results were claimed to be consistent with the Lifshitz theory. We demonstrate that the calculation of the Casimir force between the smooth bodies following the authors prescription has a discrepancy up to 25% with respect to authors result. We show also that the attractive electrostatic force only due to the surface potential differences…
Here we reply to the comment of Li et al. (arXiv:2009.09377) on the preprint (arXiv:2003.00760) of our publication (Z. Naturforsch. A 75, 803-807; DOI:10.1515/zna-2020-0204).
From energy considerations there is reason to expect that the work done by Casimir forces during a slow displacement of the parallel plates reflects the free energy of the surface tension of the adjacent surfaces. We show this explicitly, for a one-component ionic fluid or plasma with $q_c$ as ionic charge, where the particles are neutralized by a uniform continuous oppositely charged background. For two equal half-planes, the surface-associated free energy for one half-plane turns out to be just one half of the total Casimir energy for the conventional Casimir setup. We also comment, from a w…
Recently Bo E. Sernelius [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 71}, 235114 (2005)] investigated the effects of spatial dispersion on the thermal Casimir force between two metal half spaces. He claims that incorporating spatial dispersion results in a negligible contribution from the transverse electric mode at zero frequency as compared to the transverse magnetic mode. We demonstrate that this conclusion is not reliable because, when applied to the Casimir effect, the approximate description of spatial dispersion used is unjustified.
The energy of fluctuating electromagnetic field is investigated for the thermal Casimir force acting between parallel plates made of real metal. It is proved that for nondissipative media with temperature independent dielectric permittivity the energy at nonzero temperature comprises of the (renormalized) energies of the zero-point and thermal photons. In this manner photons can be considered as collective elementary excitations of the matter of plates and electromagnetic field. If the dielectric permittivity depends on temperature the energy contains additional terms proportional to the deriv…
In this paper we theoretically demonstrate the tunability of the Casimir force both in sign and magnitude between parallel plates coated with dispersive materials. We show that this force, existing between uncharged plates, can be tuned by carefully choosing the value of the plasma frequency (i.e., the epsilon-near-zero frequency) of the coating in the neighborhood of the resonance frequency of the cavity. The coating layer enables a continuous variation of the force between four limiting values when a coating is placed on each plate. We explore the consequences of such variation when pairs of…
The temperature dependence of the Casimir force between a real metallic plate and a metallic sphere is analyzed on the basis of optical data concerning the dispersion relation of metals such as gold and copper. Realistic permittivities imply, together with basic thermodynamic considerations, that the transverse electric zero mode does not contribute. This results in observable differences with the conventional prediction, which does not take this physical requirement into account. The results are shown to be consistent with the third law of thermodynamics, as well as being consistent with curr…
Recently, Høye, Brevik, Ellingsen and Aarseth (quant-ph/0703174) claimed that the use of the Drude dielectric function leads to zero Casimir entropy at zero temperature in accordance with Nernst's theorem. We demonstrate that their proof is not applicable to metals with perfect crystal lattices having no impurities. Thus there is no any contradiction with previous results in the literature proving that the Drude dielectric function violates the Nernst theorem for the Casimir entropy in the case of perfect crystal lattices. We also indicate mistakes in the coefficients of their asymptotic expre…
The finite temperature Casimir effect for a scalar field in the bulk region of the two Randall-Sundrum models, RSI and RSII, is studied. We calculate the Casimir energy and the Casimir force for two parallel plates with separation $a$ on the visible brane in the RSI model. High-temperature and low-temperature cases are covered. Attractiveness versus repulsiveness of the temperature correction to the force is discussed in the typical special cases of Dirichlet-Dirichlet, Neumann-Neumann, and Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions at low temperature. The Abel-Plana summation formula is made use o…
In this Reply to the preceding Comment of Klimchitskaya and Mostepanenko (cf. also quant-ph/0703214), we summarize and maintain our position that the Drude dispersion relation when inserted in the Lifshitz formula gives a thermodynamically satisfactory description of the Casimir force, also in the limiting case when the relaxation frequency goes to zero (perfect crystals).
We comment on the recent work [1], and on its relations with our papers [2,3] cited therein. In particular we show that, contrarily to what stated in [1], the Casimir energy density determined therein in the case of a single delta-like singularity coincides with the energy density obtained previously in our paper [2] using a different approach.
Starting from the Lifshitz formula for the Casimir force between parallel plates we calculate the difference between the forces at two different settings, one in which the temperature is $T_1=350$ K, the other when $T_2=300$ K. As material we choose gold, and make use of the Drude dispersion relation. Our results, which are shown graphically, should be directly comparable to experiment. As an analogous calculation based upon the plasma dispersion relation leads to a different theoretical force difference, an experiment of this kind would be a decisive test. We also present an analogous calcula…
It is well known that, beginning in 2000, the behavior of the thermal correction to the Casimir force between real metals has been hotly debated. As was shown by several research groups, the Lifshitz theory, which provides the theoretical foundation for the calculation of both the van der Waals and Casimir forces, leads to different results depending on the model of metal conductivity used. To resolve these controversies, the theoretical considerations based on the principles of thermodynamics and new experimental tests were invoked. We analyze the present status of the problem (in particular,…
We comment on progress in measurements of the Casimir force and discuss what is the actual reliability of different experiments. In this connection a more rigorous approach to the usage of such concepts as accuracy, precision, and measure of agreement between experiment and theory, is presented. We demonstrate that all measurements of the Casimir force employing spherical lenses with centimeter-size curvature radii are fundamentally flawed due to the presence of bubbles and pits on their surfaces. The commonly used formulation of the proximity force approximation is shown to be inapplicable fo…
It has been known that the Lifshitz theory of the Casimir force comes into conflict with the measurement data if the response of conduction electrons in metals to electromagnetic fluctuations is described by the well tested dissipative Drude model. The same theory is in a very good agreement with measurements of the Casimir force from graphene whose spatially nonlocal electromagnetic response is derived from the first principles of quantum electrodynamics. Here, we propose the spatially nonlocal phenomenological dielectric functions of metals which lead to nearly the same response, as the stan…
We discuss four different, though related, fundamental topics related to the Casimir effect: 1) We suggest that the application of Casimir theory to real dielectric materials, thus implying the atomic spacing as a course-grained length parameter, makes it natural to assume that this parameter is of the same order of magnitude as the QFT time-splitting parameter multiplied with the velocity of light. 2) We show that application of Casimir theory to a thick fluid shell (apparently a closed mechanical system), leads actually to an unstable situation if not extra mechanical forces, typically surfa…
We consider the Casimir effect between two parallel plates localized on a brane. In order to properly compute the contribution to the Casimir energy due to any higher dimensional field, it is necessary to take into account the localization properties of the KK modes. When no massless mode appears in the spectrum, the correction to the Casimir energy is exponentially suppressed. When a massless mode is present in the spectrum, the correction to the Casimir energy can be, in principle, sizeable. Here we illustrate a new method to compute the correction to the Casimir energy between two parallel …
We report an improved dynamic determination of the Casimir pressure between two plane plates obtained using a micromachined torsional oscillator. The main improvements in the current experiment are a significant suppression of the surface roughness of the Au layers deposited on the interacting surfaces, and a decrease in the experimental error in the measurement of the absolute separation. A metrological analysis of all data permitted us to determine both the random and systematic errors, and to find the total experimental error as a function of separation at the 95% confidence level. In contr…
