Abstract
A heuristic connection has been obtained between classical radiative reaction, calculated according to the Lorentz electron theory, and the vacuum field of quantum electrodynamics. In this treatment the electromagnetic field quantities, instead of being treated as operators in Hilbert space, are considered as a multivariate stochastic process. It was shown previously that such a field gives a correct result for the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates due to dispersion forces (Casimir effect). The calculation is now extended to treat the attraction between two dielectric plates. In agreement with Lifshitz’ quantum-mechanical calculation, this attraction is obtained in terms of an integral over frequency involving the complex dielectric constants of the plate materials.
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