Screened Casimir force at finite temperatures: A possible role in nuclear interactions

The high-temperature asymptotic form of the Casimir interaction originally derived by Lifshitz for dielectric media was recently shown to be correct for real dissipative surfaces. Other examples where classical quantum-mechanical results in the theory of molecular forces turn out to be wrong were more surprising. Thus, the retarded Casimir-Polder force between two atoms was shown to be correct only in the limit of zero temperature.