The thermal Casimir effect for conducting plates and the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem

Abstract

We examine recent prescriptions for estimating the thermal Casimir force between two metallic plates from the point of view of their consistency with the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem of classical statistical physics. We find that prescriptions including the effect of ohmic dissipation satisfy the theorem, while prescriptions that neglect ohmic dissipation do not.

arXiv comment3 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the QFEXT09 conference, 21-25 September, 2009, Norman, Oklahoma, USA