Edge effects in electrostatic calibrations for the measurement of the Casimir force

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to analyze how finite size boundaries influence capacitance measurements in various geometries, highlighting potential edge effects that could affect Casimir force experiment calibrations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical assessment of edge effects in electrostatic calibrations for Casimir force measurements, which was previously not thoroughly quantified.

Findings

Edge effects can significantly alter capacitance measurements.

Finite size boundaries impact electrostatic calibration accuracy.

Results inform better calibration practices for Casimir experiments.

Abstract

We have performed numerical simulations to evaluate the effect on the capacitance of finite size boundaries realistically present in the parallel plane, sphere-plane, and cylinder-plane geometries. The potential impact of edge effects in assessing the accuracy of the parameters obtained in the electrostatic calibrations of Casimir force experiments is then discussed.