Non-retarded van der Waals interactions between two spatially dispersive media

Abstract

A method is described which permits the derivation of the van der Waals interaction free energy between two spatially dispersive media separated by a vacuum. A result which agrees with that of Lushnikov and Malov is obtained. We demonstrate that subject to certain assumptions about the dielectric permittivity (which are reasonable for a macroscopic system) the results is equivalent to that given by applying the method of surface modes. © 1975.