From multiple scattering to van der Waals interactions: exact results for eccentric cylinders

Understand

In this paper, dedicated to the career of Iver Brevik, we review the derivation of the retarded van der Waals or Casimir-Polder interaction between polarizable molecules from the general multiple scattering formulation of Casimir interactions between bodies.

• We then apply this van der Waals potential to examine the interaction between tenuous cylindrical bodies, including eccentric cylinders, and revisit the vanishing self-energy of a tenuous dielectric cylinder.
• In each case, closed-form expressions are obtained.