Comparison of the experimental data for the Casimir pressure with the Lifshitz theory at zero temperature

Abstract

We perform detailed comparison of the experimental data of the experiment on the determination of the Casimir pressure between two parallel Au plates with the theoretical values computed using the Lifshitz formula at zero temperature. Computations are done using the optical data for the complex index of refraction of Au extrapolated to low frequencies by means of the Drude model with both most often used and other suggested Drude parameters. It is shown that the experimental data exclude the Lifshitz formula at zero temperature at a 70% confidence level if the Drude model with most often used values of the parameters is employed. If other values of the Drude parameters are used, the Lifshitz formula at zero frequency is experimentally excluded at a 95% confidence level. The Lifshitz formula at zero temperature combined with the generalized plasma-like model with most often used value of the plasma frequency is shown to be experimentally consistent. We propose a decisive experiment which will shed additional light on the role of relaxation properties of conduction electrons in the Casimir effect.

22 pages, 6 figures; Phys. Rev. B, to appear

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Control of the Casimir Force Using Semiconductor Test Bodies
• Making precise predictions of the Casimir force between metallic plates via a weighted Kramers-Kronig transform
• Possibility to measure thermal effects in the Casimir force
• Possibility of measuring the thermal Casimir interaction between a plate and a cylinder attached to a micromachined oscillator
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