2005/11/30 by Giuseppe Bimonte · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.160401
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.96:160401,2006 · 4 pages, 2 figures; typos corrected, minor changes to match the published version in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2006/04/21 · openalex publication_date 2006/04/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A new general expression is derived for the fluctuating electromagnetic field outside a metal surface in terms of its surface impedance. It provides a generalization to real metals of Lifshitz theory of molecular interactions between dielectric solids. The theory is used to compute the radiative heat transfer between two parallel metal surfaces at different temperatures. It is shown that a measurement of this quantity may provide an experimental resolution of a long-standing controversy about the effect of thermal corrections on the Casimir force between real metal plates.