Dispersive interaction between an atom and a conducting sphere

TL;DR

This paper calculates the van der Waals dispersive interaction between a neutral atom and a conducting sphere using two different models, providing insights into atom-sphere interactions in the nonretarded regime.

Contribution

It introduces two distinct theoretical approaches—semiclassical and quantum mechanical—to analyze atom-sphere dispersive interactions.

Findings

Both models yield consistent interaction energies.

The results enhance understanding of atom-sphere dispersive forces.

The methods can be applied to similar atom-surface interaction problems.

Abstract

We calculate the van der Waals dispersive interaction between a neutral but polarizable atom and a perfectly conducting isolated sphere in the nonretarded case. We make use of two separate models, one being the semiclassical fluctuating-dipoles method, the other using ordinary quantum mechanics.