Casimir attraction in multilayered plane parallel magnetodielectric systems

A powerful procedure is presented for calculating the Casimir attraction between plane parallel multilayers made up of homogeneous regions with arbitrary magnetic and dielectric properties by the use of the Minkowski energy-momentum tensor. The theory is applied to numerous geometries and shown to reproduce a number of results obtained by other authors. Although the various pieces of theory drawn upon are well known, the relative ease with which the Casimir force density in even complex planar structures may be calculated, appears not to be widely appreciated, and no single paper to the author's knowledge renders explicitly the procedure demonstrated herein. Results may be seen as an important building block in the settling of issues of fundamental interest, such as the long-standing dispute over the thermal behaviour of the Casimir force or the question of what is the correct stress tensor to apply, a discussion requickened by the newly suggested alternative theory due to Raabe and Welsch.