Comparison of Theory and Experiments on van der Waals Forces in Media—A Survey

We present a critical overview comparing theoretical predictions and measurements of van der Waals dispersion forces in media on the basis of the respective Hamaker constants. To quantify the agreement, we complement the reported experimental errors with those for the theoretical predictions, which are because of the uncertainties in the underlying spectroscopic data. Our main finding is that the theoretical errors are often larger than their experimental counterparts. Within these uncertainties, the comparison confirms the standard Lifshitz theory based on the Abraham electromagnetic stress tensor against the recently suggested alternative account on the basis of the Maxwell stress tensor.