Electrodynamic interactions between curved parallel surfaces

Abstract

We formulate the electrodynamic force between concentric spherical and cylindrical surfaces. The results, which do include the nonadditivity of forces, deviate from expressions for parallel planar surfaces when the radii R1 < R2 of surface curvature are comparable to surface separation l = R2 − R1. In the limit of l ≪ R1, the first correction factor for curvature goes linearly as (l/R1). In the opposite limit, R1 ≪ R2, the interaction between concentric bodies goes as l−3.