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We find an exact closed-form expression for the magnetostatic interaction energy between a point magnet and a ring magnet in terms of complete elliptic integrals. The exact expression for the energy exhibits an equilibrium point close to the axis of symmetry of the ring magnet. Our methodology will be useful in investigations concerning magnetic levitation, and in the study of Casimir levitation. 

It has been recognized for some time that, even for perfect conductors, the interaction Casimir entropy, due to quantum/thermal fluctuations, can be negative. This result was not considered problematic because it was thought that the self-entropies of the bodies would cancel this negative interaction entropy, yielding a total entropy that was positive. In fact, this cancellation seems not to occur. The positive self-entropy of a perfectly conducting sphere does indeed just cancel the negative interaction entropy of a system consisting of a perfectly conducting sphere and plate, but a model with weaker coupling in general possesses a regime where negative self-entropy appears. The physical meaning of this surprising result remains obscure. In this paper, we re-examine these issues, using improved physical and mathematical techniques, partly based on the Abel–Plana formula, and present numerical results for arbitrary temperatures and couplings, which exhibit the same remarkable features.