van der Waals Forces between Two Spheres

Abstract
The van der Waals free energy of interaction between two spheres is evaluated by an extension of van Kampen's method. For close separation the zeroth approximation is the Lifshitz result for the interaction between two planes modified by a geometric factor. In next order of approximation the free energy exhibits distinctively new features due to nonadditivity of molecular forces in condensed media interactions. The formulas coincide with earlier expressions of Langbein at large distance, but disagree at close separation since his results here are valid only for dilute media interactions.

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