Optical BCS conductivity at imaginary frequencies and dispersion energies of superconductors

We present an efficient expression for the analytic continuation to arbitrary complex frequencies of the complex optical and ac conductivity of a homogeneous superconductor with an arbitrary mean free path. Knowledge of this quantity is fundamental in the calculation of thermodynamic potentials and dispersion energies involving type-I superconducting bodies. When considered for imaginary frequencies, our formula evaluates faster than previous schemes involving Kramers-Kronig transforms. A number of applications illustrate its efficiency: a simplified low-frequency expansion of the conductivity, the electromagnetic bulk self-energy due to longitudinal plasma oscillations, and the Casimir free energy of a superconducting cavity.