2005/07/23 by B. Geyer, G. L. Klimchitskaya, V. M. Mostepanenko · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.72.022111
published as Phys. Rev. A, v.72, 022111 (2005). · 19 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. A
arxiv created 2005/07/23 · openalex publication_date 2005/08/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Casimir interaction between two thick parallel plates, one made of metal and the other of a dielectric, is investigated at nonzero temperature. It is shown that in some temperature intervals the Casimir pressure and the free energy of a fluctuating field are nonmonotonic functions of temperature and the corresponding Casimir entropy can be negative. A physical interpretation for these conclusions is given. At the same time we demonstrate that the entropy vanishes when the temperature goes to zero, i.e., in the Casimir interaction between a metal and a dielectric the Nernst heat theorem is satisfied. The investigation is performed both analytically, by using the model of an ideal metal and dilute dielectric or dielectric with a frequency-independent dielectric permittivity, and numerically for a real metal (Au) and dielectrics with different behaviors of the dielectric permittivity along the imaginary frequency axis (Si and \ensuremathα\text\ensuremath-Al2O3).