The electromagnetic field near a dielectric half-space

Abstract

We compute the expectations of the squares of the electric and magnetic fields in the vacuum region outside a half-space filled with a uniform non-dispersive dielectric. This gives predictions for the Casimir-Polder force on an atom in the `retarded' regime near a dielectric. We also find a positive energy density due to the electromagnetic field. This would lead, in the case of two parallel dielectric half-spaces, to a positive, separation-independent contribution to the energy density, besides the negative, separation-dependent Casimir energy. Rough estimates suggest that for a very wide range of cases, perhaps including all realizable ones, the total energy density between the half-spaces is positive.

Latex2e, IOP macros, 15 pages, 2 eps figures

References in corpus (1)

• `Operational' Energy Conditions

Cited by in corpus (13)

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• Brownian motion of a charged test particle driven by vacuum fluctuations near a dielectric half-space