Casimir interaction between a sphere and a cylinder

Abstract

We study the Casimir interaction between a sphere and a cylinder both subjected to Dirichlet, Neumann or perfectly conducting boundary conditions. Generalizing the operator approach developed by Wittman [IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. 36, 1078 (1988)], we compute the scalar and vector translation matrices between a sphere and a cylinder, and thus write down explicitly the exact TGTG formula for the Casimir interaction energy. In the scalar case, the formula shows manifestly that the Casimir interaction force is attractive at all separations. Large separation leading term of the Casimir interaction energy is computed directly from the exact formula. It is of order $\sim \hbar c R_1/[L^2\ln(L/R_2)]$, $\sim \hbar c R_1^3R_2^2/L^6$ and $\sim \hbar c R_1^3/[L^4\ln(L/R_2)]$ respectively for Dirichlet, Neumann and perfectly conducting boundary conditions, where $R_1$ and $R_2$ are respectively the radii of the sphere and the cylinder, and $L$ is the distance between their centers.