title: Attractive Casimir forces in a closed geometry.
abstract: We study the Casimir force acting on a conducting piston with arbitrary cross section. We find the exact solution for a rectangular cross section and the first three terms in the asymptotic expansion for small height to width ratio when the cross section is arbitrary. Though weakened by the presence of the walls, the Casimir force turns out to be always attractive. Claims of repulsive Casimir forces for related configurations, like the cube, are invalidated by cutoff dependence.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Physics, Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Hertzberg
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Jaffe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kardar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scardicchio