On the possibility of Casimir repulsion using metamaterials

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Journal of Physics A

OSTI ID:962275

Da Rosa, Felipe S ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

It is well known that the Casimir force between two half-spaces is dictated by their electromagnetic properties. In particular, when one of the half-spaces is mainly metallic or dielectric and the other is mainly magnetic, it is possible to show that the force is repulsive. This has attracted lots of interest towards the study of metamaterials (MMs) in the context of Casimir effect, as their magnetic activity might help bring the idea of Casimir repulsion from the theoretical realm to experimental verification. In this paper we investigate the possibility of repulsion when the MM magnetic permeability is given not by a Drude-Lorentz behavior, but by a model put forward by Pendry et al. [16]. After introducing the model and deriving the necessary formulas, we show that it is impossible to achieve repulsion with such a model and present a qualitative discussion of why this is so.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 962275
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-08-06958; LA-UR-08-6958
• Journal Information: Journal of Physics A, Journal Name: Journal of Physics A
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CASIMIR EFFECT
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY
VERIFICATION