Unified treatment of asymptotic van der Waals forces

In a framework for long-range density-functional theory we present a unifie d full-field treatment of the asymptotic van der Waals density functional b y doing the full, self-consistent electrodynamics for atoms, molecules, sur faces, and other objects. The only input needed consists of the electron de nsities of the interacting fragments and the static polarizability or the s tatic image plane, which can be easily evaluated in a ground-state density- functional calculation for each fragment. Results for separated atoms, mole cules, and for atoms/molecules outside surfaces are in agreement with those of other, more elaborate, calculations. [S0163-1829(99)00707-9].