Casimir energy of dielectric systems

Abstract

A new formula for the Casimir energy of a dispersive dilute dielectric ball is discussed. The formula for the Casimir energy of a polarizable particle situated in a perfectly conducting wedge-shaped cavity is derived by a path-integral coordinate space method in quantum field theory.Comment: Latex 2e, 4 pages, no figures, a talk given at the International Meeting "Quantum Gravity and Spectral Geometry" (Naples, Italy, July 2-7, 2001