Abstract. Dispersive forces are a kind of van der Waals intermolecular force which could only be fully understood with the establishment of quantum mechanics and, in particular, of quantum electrodynamics. In this pedagogical paper, we introduce the subject in a more elementary approach, aiming at students with basic knowledge of quantum mechanics. We perform original calculations using a semiclassical method by the name of the fluctuating-dipole method, and focus primarily on the interaction of atoms with macroscopic bodies, in particular with a spherical, less usual geometry.

Print publication: Issue 1 (January 2010)
Received 22 July 2009, in final form 8 October 2009
Published 4 November 2009