  The problem of estimating the thermal corrections to Casimir and
Casimir-Polder interactions in systems involving conducting plates has
attracted considerable attention in the recent literature on dispersion forces.
Alternative theoretical models, based on distinct low-frequency extrapolations
of the plates reflection coefficient for transverse electric (TE) modes,
provide widely different predictions for the magnitude of this correction. In
this paper we examine the most widely used prescriptions for this reflection
coefficient from the point of view of their consistency with the Bohr-van
Leeuwen theorem of classical statistical physics, stating that at thermal
equilibrium transverse electromagnetic fields decouple from matter in the
classical limit. We find that the theorem is satisfied if and only if the TE
reflection coefficient vanishes at zero frequency in the classical limit. This
criterion appears to rule out some of the models that have been considered
recently for describing the thermal correction to the Casimir pressure with
non-magnetic metallic plates.
