Casimir interactions of an object inside a spherical metal shell

Journal Article · Mon Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.81.030502· OSTI ID:21413275

Zaheer, Saad; Rahi, Sahand Jamal ^[1]; Emig, Thorsten ^[2]; Jaffe, Robert L ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
2. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Universitaet zu Koeln, Zuelpicher Strasse 77, D-50937 Koeln (Germany)

We investigate the electromagnetic Casimir interactions of an object contained within an otherwise empty, perfectly conducting spherical shell. For a small object we present analytical calculations of the force, which is directed away from the center of the cavity, and the torque, which tends to align the object opposite to the preferred alignment outside the cavity. For a perfectly conducting sphere as the interior object, we compute the corrections to the proximity force approximation (PFA) numerically. In both cases the results for the interior configuration match smoothly onto those for the corresponding exterior configuration.

• OSTI ID: 21413275
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 81, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.81.030502; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
APPROXIMATIONS
CAVITIES
CORRECTIONS
INTERACTIONS
METALS
SPHERES
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
CALCULATION METHODS
CONFIGURATION
ELEMENTS