Nature
Influence of Retardation on the London–van der Waals Forces - Nature
...London—van der Waals forces, the repulsion being due to the interaction of electric double layers, Overbeek arrived at the conclusion that in order to account for the stability of suspensions of comparatively large particles, it is necessary to assume that for long distances the London—van der Waals energy decreases more rapidly than R-6; and he pointed out that as soon as the distance becomes comparable to the wave-length corresponding to the excitation energies of the interacting atoms, the retardation of the electrostatic interaction...
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