On the fermionic van der Waals and Casimir-Polder interactions

Abstract

We formulate fermionic versions, for any number of spatial dimensions, of the van der Waals and Casimir-Polder interactions, and study their properties. In both cases, the systems we introduce contain localized `atoms': two-level systems, coupled to a vacuum Dirac field. This Dirac field plays here a role akin to the electromagnetic field in the van der Waals case. In this context, bag-model conditions for the Dirac field serve as the analog of the 'mirror' in the Casimir-Polder effect. We found that, in this case, the resulting interaction is repulsive.