Casimir force in the presence of a medium

Abstract

We investigate the Casimir effect in the presence of a medium by quantizing the electromagnetic field in the presence of a magnetodielectric medium using the path-integral technique. For a given medium with definite electric and magnetic susceptibilities, explicit expressions for the Casimir force are obtained. The Lifshitz formula is recovered and in the absence of a medium the results tend to the original Casimir force between two conducting parallel plates immersed in the quantum electromagnetic vacuum.