Van der Waals and Casimir-Polder interactions between neutrons

Abstract

We investigate the van der Waals interaction between neutrons using the theory of Casimir and Polder, wherein the potential for asymptotically large separations falls off as the inverse seventh power, and compare it to the similar interaction between a neutron and a proton, for which the asymptotic interaction falls off as the inverse fourth power. Modifications of the formalism to extend the validity to smaller separations using dynamic electric and magnetic dipole polarizability data are discussed.