Casimir interactions in Ising strips with boundary fields: exact results

Abstract

An exact statistical mechanical derivation is given of the critical Casimir forces for Ising strips with arbitrary surface fields applied to edges. Our results show that the strength as well as the sign of the force can be controled by varying the temperature or the fields. An interpretation of the results is given in terms of a linked cluster expansion. This suggests a systematic approach for deriving the critical Casimir force which can be used in more general models.