The Pairwise Summation Approximation (PSA) of Casimir energy is applied to a system of two dielectrics with magnetoelectric coupling. In particular, the case of Topological Insulators (TI) is studied in detail. Depending on the the optical response of the TI, we obtain a stable equilibrium distance, atraction for all distances, or repulsion for all distances at zero temperature. This equilibrium distance disappears in the high temperature limit. These results are independent on the geometry of the TI, but are only valid in the diluted approximation.
Categories: cond-mat.stat-mech quant-ph