title: First-principles theory of van der Waals forces between macroscopic bodies.
abstract: We present a first-principles method for the determination of the van der Waals interactions for a collection of finite-sized macroscopic bodies. The method is based on fluctuational electrodynamics and a rigorous multiple-scattering method for the electromagnetic field. As such, the method takes fully into account retardation, many-body, multipolar, and near-fields effects. By application of the method to the case of two metallic nanoparticles, we demonstrate the breakdown of the standard 1/r(2) distance law as the van der Waals force decays exponentially with distance when the nanoparticles are too close or too far apart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, GR-26504 Patras, Greece. vyannop@upatras.gr
authors.forename: Vassilios
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Yannopapas
authors.forename: Nikolay V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Vitanov