Riesz energy deformation through insulated strips

For compact sets in Euclidean space, Riesz energies whose exponents differ by $1$ are shown to arise as the endpoint cases of a one-parameter family of infinite-strip energies as the strip thickness increases from $0$ to $\mathrm{\infty }$, under Neumann boundary conditions. An approach is suggested to a capacity conjecture of Pólya and Szegő.