We give a comprehensive presentation of methods for calculating the Casimir force to arbitrary accuracy, for any number of objects, arbitrary shapes, susceptibility functions, and separations. The technique is applicable to objects immersed in media other than vacuum, nonzero temperatures, and spatial arrangements in which one object is enclosed in another. Our method combines each object’s classical electromagnetic scattering amplitude with universal translation matrices, which convert between the bases used to calculate scattering for each object, but are otherwise independent of the details of the individual objects. The method is illustrated by rederiving the Lifshitz formula for infinite half-spaces, by demonstrating the Casimir-Polder to van der Waals crossover, and by computing the Casimir interaction energy of two infinite, parallel, perfect metal cylinders either inside or outside one another. Furthermore, it is used to obtain new results, namely, the Casimir energies of a sphere or a cylinder opposite a plate, all with finite permittivity and permeability, to leading order at large separation.

• Received 18 August 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.085021