https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50484-8
Regular Article
Casimir forces in a plasma: possible connections to Yukawa potentials
1 Department of Applied Mathematics,
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
2 Centre for Materials Science and
Nanotechnology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048
Blindern, 0316
Oslo,
Norway
3 Department of Energy and Process
Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
7491
Trondheim,
Norway
4 Department of Physics, University of
Oslo, P.O. Box
1048
Blindern, 0316
Oslo,
Norway
5 Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, 10044
Stockholm,
Sweden
6 Physikalisches Institut,
Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3, 79104
Freiburg,
Germany
7 Division of Theory and Modeling,
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University,
58183
Linköping,
Sweden
a e-mail: iver.h.brevik@ntnu.no
Received:
30
June
2014
Received in final form:
29
August
2014
Published online:
28
October
2014
We present theoretical and numerical results for the screened Casimir effect between perfect metal surfaces in a plasma. We show how the Casimir effect in an electron-positron plasma can provide an important contribution to nuclear interactions. Our results suggest that there is a connection between Casimir forces and nucleon forces mediated by mesons. Correct nuclear energies and meson masses appear to emerge naturally from the screened Casimir-Lifshitz effect.
Key words: Plasma Physics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2014