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843 Am. J. Phys. 79 (8), August 2011 http://aapt.org/ajp C 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers
V 843
Fig. 3. Argument that an infinitesimally thin metallic hemisphere repels a
point charge. (a) At z 0, the vacuum electric field lines of the point charge
are already perpendicular to the hemisphere (side view), and thus the electric
field is unaffected by the presence of the hemisphere. (b) Schematic charge-
hemisphere interaction energy Uz U1. Because it is zero at z 0 and
Fig. 1. (a) Electrostatics of a point charge interacting with a neutral metallic
at z ! 1 and attractive for z R, there must be repulsion for small posi-
sphere. By using image charges (dotted circles), it is easy to see that the
tive z.
force F on the point charge is attractive. (b) We ask whether the force is
attractive for any shape of metallic object. More precisely, if the point
charge and the object are on opposite sides of the z 0 plane (dotted line),
with the charge in fz > 0g and the object in fz < 0g, is Fz always negative? also given by the Coulomb electric field. In particular, we
see that the two field distributions are identical. We then con-
from the hemisphere, that is, z R, the force is necessarily clude that, because the electrostatic energy U of the system
attractive by the general argument given previously. We now is given by
show that the force changes sign and becomes repulsive
1
when the charge approaches the z 0 plane. U E2 d 3 x; (1)
We can establish the existence of a repulsive regime with- 8p
out any calculation if we assume an idealized geometry which depends only on the electric field distribution E, the
where the hemisphere is infinitesimally thin. The idea is to electrostatic energy of the system must be identical when the
consider the case where the point charge is at the origin, charge is at z 0 and at z 1.6 In other words, if we inter-
z 0. When the point charge is at this special point, the pret U as a function of the charges position z, then
Coulomb electric field lines of the point charge are all per- U0 U1.
pendicular to the hemisphere [see Fig. 3(a)]. In other words, The existence of a repulsive regime follows immediately
the hemisphere is an equipotential surface of the Coulomb from the equality U0 U1: Uz must vary non-
potential, /r q=r, which means that the Coulomb poten- monotonically between z 0 and z 1 and in particular
tial solves the relevant boundary value problem. By the must be decreasing, that is, repulsive, at some intermediate
uniqueness theorem in electrostatics, there can be only one points [see Fig. 3(b)]. We can even go a bit further and argue
solution to this boundary value problem, so the solution must that there must be a repulsive regime when z is small and
be exactly the Coulomb potential and Coulomb electric field. positive. Recall the inequality Uz U1 derived in Sec.
(As a historical aside, we note that the idea of placing thin I. Because U0 U1, we have Uz U0, which
conductors on equipotential surfaces created by a known implies that Fz dU=dz is positive (repulsive) for small
charge distribution is an approach that goes back to Max- positive z.
well.)35 Because the interaction is attractive for large z and repul-
Using this observation, we now argue that when the sive for small z, the simplest consistent scenario is that the
charge is at z 0, the electrostatic energy U of the system is electrostatic energy Uz U1 is zero at z 0, decreases
the same as when the charge is at z 1. We deduce this to negative values for small z > 0, and then increases to zero
equality by comparing the electric field distributions in these for large z, as depicted in Fig. 3(b). We confirm this scenario
two cases. When the charge is at z 0, the field lines are in Sec. IV with an exact solution of an analogous 2D system.
given by the Coulomb electric field E q^ r =r 2 , as argued Note that the point of minimum U is an equilibrium position,
previously. When the charge is at infinity, the metallic hemi- stable under perturbations in the z direction. By Earnshaws
sphere has no effect, and thus the electric field distribution is theorem and its generalizations,1 this equilibrium point must
be unstable to lateral (xy) perturbations.
So far, we have focused on an idealized geometry where
the hemisphere is infinitesimally thin. Now suppose that the
hemisphere has a finite thickness t. In this case, the hemi-
sphere no longer lies on an equipotential surface for the Cou-
lomb potential, and hence the Coulomb electric field no
longer gives an exact solution to the boundary value prob-
lem. Therefore, the previous argument cannot be applied
directly. However, as long as t=R is small, the electrostatic
energy curve [Fig. 3(b)] can shift only by a small amount
from the t 0 case, so that the repulsive regime must con-
tinue to persist. To make this argument more quantitative,
Fig. 2. Example of a geometry in which a neutral metallic object repels a note that the main effect of the finite thickness is to expel the
point charge: a point charge centered above a thin metallic hemisphere (side electric field from the volume of the hemisphere, V 2pR2 t.
view). As a result, we have to lowest order in t
844 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 844
V 2 q2 t positive and negative charges (r R), but cos h is larger for
U0 U1 E 2; (2) the positive charges. The result is a repulsive force. In con-
8p 4R
trast, if the point charge is very far away, z R, then the
where q is the charge carried by the point charge. We com- 1=r 2 factor is larger for the negative charges by a factor of
pare Eq. (2) with the minimum value of U, which is of order size 1 OR=z, while cos h is almost the same for the posi-
Umin U1 q2 =R by dimensional analysis and see tive and negative charges, that is, cos h 1 OR2 =z2 . The
that Umin < U0 for small t=R. Hence, the repulsive regime result is an attractive force.
must persist in the presence of small, finite thickness. In con- This argument also explains why the repulsive regime dis-
trast, when t=R becomes sufficiently large, the repulsive re- appears when the thickness t becomes comparable to R.
gime disappears completely, as we explain in Sec. III. Once t=R is appreciable, we can no longer make the approxi-
Numerical calculations for an analogous 2D geometry con- mation of combining the charges on the two sides of the
firm this picture (see Fig. 5). hemisphere into a single charge density. Instead, we need to
treat the two surface charge densities separately. Intuitively,
III. GEOMETRIC ORIGIN OF THE REPULSION we expect that the charges on the inner surface are mostly
negative, while the charges on the outer surface are mostly
The general argument we have described shows that there positive, as depicted in Fig. 4(b). The finite distance between
must be a repulsive regime, but it does not tell us what the two surfaces makes an attractive contribution to the total
causes the repulsion. To address this question, it is useful to force, because the negative charges are closer to the point
consider the induced charges on the hemisphere when the charge than the positive charges. This effect can overwhelm
charge is at 0; 0; z on the positive z axis. In general, there the cos h factor when t=R is sufficiently large, destroying the
will be charges on both sides of the hemisphere, but in the repulsive regime completely.
limit where the hemisphere is very thin, we can make the
approximation of combining the charges on the two sides IV. EXACT SOLUTION IN TWO DIMENSIONS
into a single surface charge density r. If we assume that the
point charge is positive, we expect this total charge density To gain additional insight, we next calculate the force
to be of the form shown in Fig.4(a), with r positive in the exactly in an analogous 2D geometry. The geometry consists
center of the hemisphere and negative near the boundary. of a metal semicircle of radius R, which we denote by SR , to-
We would like to understand the force that these induced gether with a point charge. In analogy with the three-dimen-
charges exert on the point charge. Clearly, the negative sional (3D) case, we take the semicircle to be centered at the
charges are closer to the point charge than the positive origin and positioned in the lower half plane. More precisely,
charges, so they exert a stronger force on it. Naively, we in terms of the Cartesian coordinates x1 ; x2 , we take SR to
might expect this difference in distances to lead to a net be the set of all points with jx1 j2 jx2 j2 R2 and x2 0. We
attractive force. However, the key point is that the angle take the point charge to be at position y 0; z with z > 0.
between the force direction and the z axis is smaller for the We now calculate the 2D electrostatic interaction between
positive charges than the negative charges, and thus even the point charge and the metal semicircle assuming that the
though they are further away, they can potentially exert a point charge carries charge q. Our starting point is the
greater force in the z direction, depending on the position of boundary value problem defined by
the point charge.
More precisely, the z component of the force that a charge r2 /y x 2pqdx y; (3)
on the hemisphere exerts on the point charge is proportional
to cos h=r2 , where r is the distance to the charge and h is the with the boundary conditions
angle with respect to the z axis [see Fig. 4(a)]. The positive
charges have a larger r, but also a larger value of cos h than /y x constant x 2 @SR ; (4)
the negative charges. The competition between these two ge-
/y x q logjx yj 0 for x ! 1; (5)
ometrical effects determines the sign of the force. If the point
charge is very close to the origin, z R, then the trigono-
metric factor cos h dominates; r is almost the same for the n r/y xdx 0: (6)
@SR
845 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 845
y
A plot of Uz is shown in Fig. 5, together with numerical
Uy U1 Fx dx (9) results for finite thickness geometries included for compari-
1
son. We can see from Fig. 5 (or from a little algebra) that the
q q force Fz dU=dz is repulsive for 0 < z < R and attractive
/~x xjy1 /~y y: (10)
2 2 for z > R, in agreement with our previous arguments. Using
Eq. (16), we can check that the equilibrium at z R is unsta-
The second equality follows from the fact that /~x y ble to perturbations away from the symmetry axis, as
/~y x so that q=2rx /~x x Fx. required by Earnshaws theorem and its generalizations.1
Our strategy will be to solve the boundary value problem We can also see from Fig. 5 that the force changes sign
(3) using a conformal mapping, obtain /~y , and then calculate again at z 0 (for zero thickness). The existence of an addi-
the energy (10). To this end, we view our 2D system as the tional sign change is not surprising because as z ! R, the
complex plane C, and use complex coordinates u x1 ix2 , force must approach the attractive interaction between a
t y1 iy2 in place of x, y. We can check that the analytic charge and an infinite metal plate. As for why the sign
function change occurs exactly at z 0, there are several ways to
p
iR u i R2 u2 understand this apparent coincidence. One way is to note
hu ; (11) that the general inequality Uz U1, together with the
2
defines a conformal map from the region outside the semi- fact that U0 U1, implies that U reaches a maximum
p at z 0. Another way is to note that the induced charges on
circle SR to the region outside the disk D of radius R= 2
centered at the origin. In other words, h maps the set of all the semicircle arrange themselves oppositely when z < 0 as
points u x1 ix2 withp compared with z > 0 [see Fig. 4(a)], because when z < 0,
x1 > 0 or juj 6 R onto the set
either
the center of the semicircle is closer to the point charge than
of points with juj > R= 2. Following the conformal map-
ping approach to 2D boundary value problems,7 the function the boundary, and the situation is reversed for z > 0. This
h allows us to map the boundary value problem correspond- sign change in the induced charge arrangement implies a cor-
ing to a charge interacting with a metallic disk D onto the responding sign change in the force. Alternatively, we note
problem of a charge interacting with a metallic semicircle that when z 0, there are no induced charges (or more accu-
SR . rately, the induced charges on the two sides of the semicircle
The boundary value problem for a metallic disk can be cancel exactly), so the force necessarily vanishes.
easily solved using image charges. The potential for this ge- The electrostatic energy for the 3D charge-hemisphere ge-
ometry is given by ometry, U3D zcan also be obtained analytically, although
the calculation8 is more complicated. For completeness, we
R2 include a plot of the result U3D z in Fig. 6. Note the similar-
/Dv u q log ju vj q log u q log juj: (12) ity to the 2D energy Uz, though in three dimensions, the
v
2
It follows that the potential for the semicircle geometry is force changes sign at z 0:63R rather than at z R.
The vanishing of Fz at z R in the 2D case can be estab-
/v u /D lished without any calculation, because it follows from a
hv hu (13)
simple geometrical argument similar to the one in Sec. III.
Consider the z component of the force that an induced charge
R2
q log jhu hvj q loghu on the semicircle exerts on the point charge. In analogy with
v
2h
Fig. 4(a), this quantity is proportional to cos h=r, where r is
q log jhuj; (14)
so that
!
dh R2
/~v v q log q log 1 : (15)
dv 2jhvj2
0 1 Fig. 5. (Color online) The dashed curve is the exact (analytic) 2D electro-
4R2 static interaction energy Uz for the charge-semicircle geometry in the limit
B2 p
q2 B R z R2 z2 2 C C
of zero thickness. The solid curves are numerical results for finite-thickness
(t 6 0) geometries for t=R 0:1, 0:05, 0:01, and 0:005 from bottom to top
Uz logB z C: (17)
2 @ 1 p A (inset: t=R 0:1). The numerical results used a boundary-element surface-
R 2 z2 integral-equation method,13 Nystrom-discretized with 12000 points for bet-
ter than 1% accuracy.
846 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 846
Fig. 7. (a) Example of a geometry in which a neutral metallic object repels
Fig. 6. (Color online) Exact (analytic) electrostatic interaction energy an electric dipole: a dipole centered above a thin metallic plate with a hole.
U3D z for charge-hemisphere geometry. (b) Example of a geometry achieving Casimir repulsion: an elongated metal
particle centered above a thin metal plate with a hole.
847 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 847
To understand this claim, note that the Casimir interaction short out the sheet along a semicircle centered at the origin
can be thought of as a electromagnetic interaction between and located in the lower half plane [see Fig. 8(a)]. If z is
zero-point quantum mechanical charge fluctuations on the small, shorting out the sheet along the semicircle increases
particle and the associated induced charges on the plate. the current flow in the positive z direction in the vicinity
Because the particle is highly elongated and infinitesimally of y.
small, the only charge fluctuations are z-directed dipole fluc- One way to derive this counterintuitive behavior is to note
tuations. Hence, the problem reduces to understanding the that the current flow can be exactly mapped onto the original
classical electromagnetic interaction between these electrostatics problem. The current density j obeys the con-
z-directed dipole fluctuations and the plate with a hole. tinuum analogue of Kirchoffs laws,
The argument now proceeds as in the electrostatic case.
We consider the special case where the particle is located at r jx Idx y; (20)
the origin, z 0. When the particle is at this special point,
j
its dipole fluctuations do not couple to the plate at all, r 0; (21)
because the vacuum dipole field lines are already perpendic- r
ular to the plate. This decoupling holds for not only zero fre-
quency dipole fluctuations (as discussed in Sec. V A), but with the boundary conditions
also for finite frequency fluctuations. The decoupling jx?@M x 2 @M; (22)
between the dipole fluctuations and the plate is guaranteed
by symmetry because the metal plate is symmetrical with jx 0 x ! 1; (23)
respect to the z 0 mirror plane, while the dipole fluctua-
tions are antisymmetric. Because the particle and plate do n jxdx 0: (24)
not couple, it follows that the Casimir energy at z 0 is the @M
same as at infinite separation, U0 U1, so that the
energy must vary non-monotonically, and hence must be re- The first boundary condition comes from the vanishing resis-
pulsive at some intermediate points. tivity in the region M, and the third boundary condition
For z W, the hole in the plate can be neglected, and we comes from current conservation. These equations are identi-
have the usual attractive interaction. Therefore, we expect cal to the equations obeyed by the electric field E in the point
the interaction energy to be of the form shown in Fig. 3(b), charge-metallic object electrostatics problem. But we know
with a repulsive regime for small z, an attractive regime for that in the charge-semicircle electrostatics problem, the
large z, and a sign change for at some z W. This expecta- metal semicircle generates a repulsive electric field near the
tion is confirmed by numerical calculations.11 point charge when z is small. Translating this repulsive elec-
As in the electrostatic examples, the point of minimum U tric field into current flow language, we conclude that short-
is an unstable equilibrium as the particle is unstable to per- ing out the semicircle must increase the current flow in the
turbations away from the symmetry axis. Thus, this geome- positive z direction, in the vicinity of y.
try does not support stable Casimir levitation. This It is interesting to consider the opposite question as well:
instability is consistent with the instability theorem of Ref. how does the current flow change if we cut a hole in the
12an analogue of Earnshaws theorem for the Casimir sheet in some region M, effectively making the resistivity
force. infinite there? We expect that this hole will decrease the
amount of current flowing toward M. Surprisingly, for some
shapes of M, the flow toward M may increase instead.
C. Current flow analogues The counterexample geometry is to inject current at some
In this section, we discuss analogues of these geometrical point y 0; z in the upper half plane and to cut the sheet
effects involving current flow in a resistive sheet. We show along two line segments in the lower half plane, which are
that current flows can behave in counterintuitive ways in cer- symmetrical with respect to the vertical axis and which have
tain geometries. Our starting point is a perfectly homogene- the property that their extensions pass through the origin [see
ous infinite resistive sheet with conductivity r. Imagine Fig. 8(b)]. If z is small, the effect of making these cuts is to
injecting current I into some point y and collecting it at the increase the current flow in the negative z direction, at least
infinitely distant boundary. As long as the material is homo- in the vicinity of y.
geneous, the current will flow from the injection point in a
radially symmetric way with the current density given by
Ix y
jx : (19)
2pjx yj2
848 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 848
To see this effect, note that in this case, the current density ple, are all shapes that repel a point charge similar to the
obeys Neumann boundary conditions at @M instead of hemisphere geometry discussed here or are there completely
Dirichlet boundary conditions: different kinds of geometries with this property? More spe-
cifically, is it possible to achieve repulsion with a convex
jx k @M x 2 @M; (25) metallic object? We can ask similar questions about Casimir
repulsion. There are many open questions here, and we have
jx 0 x ! 1: (26)
only just begun to understand these counterintuitive geomet-
As a result, this current flow problem maps onto a different ric effects.
kind of electrostatics problem. Instead of the point charge-
metallic object system, the analogue system involves a point
charge and an object with a dielectric constant that is much ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
smaller than the surrounding medium. Such a geometry is
unusual, but could in principle be realized by immersing a This work was supported in part by the Harvard Society of
point charge and an object with a small dielectric constant in Fellows, the MIT Ferry Fund, and DARPA contract N66001-
a liquid with a large dielectric constant. Although this elec- 09-1-2070-DOD. The authors are grateful to Amit Hochman
trostatics problem is different from the ones we have consid- at MIT for helping us with his Poisson-solver software.
ered, we can analyze it in the same way as before. We note
1
that when z 0, the vacuum field lines of the point charge D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. (Prentice Hall,
automatically obey the Neumann boundary conditions (26), Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999).
2
J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. (John Wiley & Sons,
which means that the electric field lines at z 0 are the
New York, 1998).
same as in a vacuum. Hence, the electrostatic energy U at 3
J. C. Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed. (Oxford
z 0 is the same as at infinite separation: U0 U1. University Press, Oxford, 1891).
Because the force is repulsive at large z (as follows from 4
E. M. Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism, 2nd ed. (McGraw-Hill, New
general arguments similar to the Dirichlet boundary condi- York, 1985).
5
tion case), we conclude that there is an attractive regime at W. M. Saslow, Electricity, Magnetism, and Light (Academic Press, New
small z. If we convert this argument into current flow lan- York, 2002).
6
Strictly speaking, because the integral in Eq. (1) is divergent for a geome-
guage, we deduce that cutting the sheet along the radial lines try with an ideal point charge, we need to be careful to avoid any referen-
increases the current flow in the negative z direction in the ces to the absolute energy Uz (which is infinite) and instead consider
vicinity of y, when z is small. only differences in energies such as Uz U1. In our discussion, we
only consider such differences in energies.
7
VI. CONCLUSION J. E. Marsden and M. J. Hoffman, Basic Complex Analysis, 2nd ed. (W. H.
Freeman, New York, 1987).
8
We have shown that, in certain geometries, a neutral me- See supplementary material at http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3469765 for an
tallic object can repel a point charge. We have also shown analytic solution of the 3D charge-hemisphere problem.
9
M. T. H. Reid, private communication.
that analogues of this geometry-induced repulsion can 10
L. D. Landau, E. M. Lifshitz, and L. P. Pitaevskii, Statistical Physics, Part
appear in Casimir systems and current flow problems. These 2, 2nd ed. (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1960).
examples demonstrate that geometry alone can reverse the 11
M. Levin, A. P. McCauley, A. W. Rodriguez, M. T. H. Reid, and S. G.
sign of electrostatic and Casimir forces and lead to surprising Johnson, Casimir repulsion between metallic objects in vacuum, Phys.
behavior in many other systems. We expect that analogues Rev. Lett. 105, 090403-14 (2010).
12
of this effect can appear in almost any physical system gov- S. J. Rahi, M. Kardar, and T. Emig, Constraints on stable equilibria with
fluctuation-induced (Casimir) forces, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070404-14
erned by Laplace-like equations, from superconductor-mag- (2010).
net systems to (idealized) fluid flow problems. 13
A. Greenbaum, L. Greengard, and G. B. McFadden, Laplaces equation
One direction for future research would be to investigate and the Dirichlet-Neumann map in multiply connected domains,
to what extent these counterexamples are special. For exam- J. Comp. Phys. 105, 267278 (1993).
849 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 8, August 2011 M. Levin and S. G. Johnson 849