Comment on Repulsive Casimir Forces

Abstract

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 attractive.

2 pages

References in corpus (7)

• Precision Measurement of the Casimir Force from 0.1 to 0.9 microns
• Measurement of the Casimir force between parallel metallic surfaces
• Improved Precision Measurement of the Casimir Force Using Gold Surfaces
• Template-stripped gold surfaces with 0.4 nm rms roughness suitable for force measurements. Application to the Casimir force in the 20-100 nm range
• Repulsive Casimir forces
• Probing the Strong Boundary Shape Dependence of the Casimir Force
• Long-range magnetic interaction due to the Casimir effect

Cited by in corpus (31)

• The Casimir effect: Recent controversies and progress
• A Materials Perspective on Casimir and van der Waals Interactions
• Opposites Attract - A Theorem About The Casimir Force
• Casimir-Lifshitz Theory and Metamaterials
• Quantum levitation by left-handed metamaterials
• Halving the Casimir force with conductive oxides
• Demonstration of the Casimir force between ferromagnetic surfaces of a Ni-coated sphere and a Ni-coated plate
• Casimir Interactions for Anisotropic Magnetodielectric Metamaterials
• Investigation of the Casimir interaction between two magnetic metals in comparison with nonmagnetic test bodies
• Casimir force between designed materials: what is possible and what not
• Virtual photons in imaginary time: Computing exact Casimir forces via standard numerical-electromagnetism techniques
• Measurement of the gradient of the Casimir force between a nonmagnetic sphere and a magnetic plate
• Ground-state van der Waals forces in planar multilayer magnetodielectrics
• Vacuum Energy and Repulsive Casimir Forces in Quantum Star Graphs
• Repulsive Casimir Pistons
• Casimir pistons with hybrid boundary conditions
• Casimir force between dispersive magnetodielectrics
• Towards a Theory of Molecular Forces between Deformed Media
• The impact of magnetic properties on atom-wall interaction
• Magnetic materials and the problem of thermal Casimir force
• Dynamical Casimir effect with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions
• Reduction of the Casimir force using aerogels
• Theory-experiment comparison for the Casimir force between metallic test bodies: A spatially nonlocal dielectric response
• Quantum radiation force on a moving mirror with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions at vacuum, finite temperature and coherent states
• The Casimir force between dissimilar mirrors and the role of the surface plasmons
• Thermal Casimir Force between Magnetic Materials
• Some Developments of the Casimir Effect in $p$-Cavity of $(D+1)$-Dimensional Spacetime
• Normal and lateral Casimir force: Advances and prospects
• Quasiperiodic arrangement of magnetodielectric $\delta$-plates: Green's functions and Casimir energies for $N$ bodies
• Casimir energy for $N$ constant conductivity $\delta$-plates with a neural network perception
• Tangential Casimir force in the misaligned system: Magnetic media, real conductors, and a torque