Electrostatic repulsion between a uncharged or slightly charged conductor and a point charge

Abstract

A counterintuitive effect of a repulsion between uncharged and charged conductors is considered. Our numerical calculations prove this effect for various axially symmetric systems of a neutral conductor in an electric field of a point charge. The presence of a cavity in the conductor is very important for the repulsion effect. Our simple analytical model explains this effect in terms of specific spatial positions of induced charges.