Static interaction between electrically polarisable particles in vacuo

Abstract

The static interaction of a point charge and a polarisable particle and between two polarisable particles is discussed in vacuo, and force and energy considerations are made. In particular a critical distance is shown (in principle) to appear in the two-dipole case, where the polarisation is self- sustained, and above which it disappears and below which it tends to explode. In the case of a polarisable particle with a nonzero charge interacting with a charge (of the same sign) there is a distance where repulsion and attraction are balanced.