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Abstract

Van der Waals (vdW) forces act ubiquitously in condensed matter. Their description as an
inherently quantum mechanical phenomenon was developed for single atoms and homogeneous
macroscopic bodies by London, Casimir, and Lifshitz. For intermediate-sized objects
like organic molecules an atomistic description is required, but explicit first principles
calculations are very difficult since correlations between many interacting electrons have to
be considered. Hence, semi-empirical correction schemes are often used that simplify the
vdW interaction to a sum over atom-pair potentials. A similar gap exists between successful
measurements of vdW and Casimir forces for single atoms on the one hand and
macroscopic bodies on the other, as comparable experiments for molecules are absent.