Physics Colloquium, December 4, 2007
Some new polarized variant of the Casimir effect Shmuel Nussinov

Tel Aviv University, Israel

The vector nature of light makes the Casimir force between parallel plates which conduct in different directions depend- in a calculable way- on the angle between these directions. This is also a measureable effect which can broaden the scope of the original Casimir effect. The path integral approach used to derive our results requires no regularizations and suggests that the force between two separate bodies will be always finite when calculated in this way. The sign of the Casimir interactions in variouse geometries may have an intuitive explanation yet the positive Casimir self interaction in aspherical geometry is unmeasureable. We mention a recent theorem of Kenneth & Klich stating that the force between any two objects which are mirror images with respect to a reflection plane some plane of each other is always attractive and speculate on possible connection with some QCD inequalities.

Dr. Nussinov's Department Web Site

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB