Charge confinement by Casimir forces

Abstract

Laboratory observation of high-density filamentation or clustering of electronic charge suggests that under certain conditions strong coulomb repulsion can be overcome by cohesive forces as yet imprecisely defined. Following an earlier suggestion by Casimir, we investigate here the possibility that Casimir forces can lead to charge clustering of the type observed, and conclude that such forces may play a role in the generation of robust high-charge-density effects.