Figure 1

Summary of the different forms of interaction between two wires and a wire and a plate. Shown are the rescaled interaction energies per cylinder length, $\mathcal{E}/\left(\hslash cL\right)$. (a) Interaction involving a plasma (P) wire with another plasma wire, a perfect metal (PM) wire or a plate. The asymptotic results apply sufficiently far away from the separating curve $\ln (d/R)\sim {({\lambda }_p/R)}^2$ and for $d/R$, ${\lambda }_p/R\gg 1$. (b) Interaction involving a Drude (D) wire with another Drude wire, a plasma wire, a perfect metal wire, or a plate. The separating curve is given, up to logarithmic corrections, by $d/R\sim \sqrt{d/{\lambda }_{\sigma }}$. The shown expressions hold for $d/R$, $d/{\lambda }_{\sigma }\gg 1$ and $d\gg {\lambda }_p^2/{\lambda }_{\sigma }$. Depending on the relative size of length scales, different regimes can be reached: Dashed arrow (1) corresponds to an increasing distance $d$ which ultimately leads to a nonuniversal interaction. Dashed arrow (2) indicates an overall increase of the geometry (i.e., $d/R$ fixed) with constant conductivity leading to a universal interaction.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

Ratio of the numerically computed force and the universal (squares) and nonuniversal (circles) asymptotic results of Fig. 1 for two Drude wires with ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{p}}/R=0.5$ and ${\lambda }_{\sigma }={\lambda }_{\mathrm{p}}/27.4$. The inset shows the ratio of the numerical force to the proximity force approximation for Drude cylinders with ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{p}}/R=0.5$ (diamonds) and ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{p}}/R=0.05$ (triangles).Reuse & Permissions