Advances in the Casimir Effect

Abstract The subject of this book is the Casimir effect, i.e., a manifestation of zero-point oscillations of the quantum vacuum in the form of forces acting between closely spaced bodies. It is a purely quantum effect. There is no force acting between neutral bodies in classical electrodynamics. The Casimir effect has become an interdisciplinary subject. It plays an important role in various fields of physics such as condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, atomic and molecular physics, gravitation and cosmology, and mathematical physics. Most recently, the Casimir effect has been applied to nanotechnology and for obtaining constraints on the predictions of unification theories beyond the Standard…