Long range Casimir force induced by transverse electromagnetic modes
Ezequiel Alvarez, Francisco D. Mazzitelli
备注：
9 pages, 5 figures. A statement about the boundary conditions for the Hertz potentials has been corrected. Some typos have been fixed. Results remain unchanged
We consider the interaction of two perfectly conducting plates of arbitrary shape that are inside a non-simply connected cylinder with transverse section of the same shape. We show that the existence of transverse electromagnetic (TEM) modes produces a Casimir force that decays only as $1/a^2$, where $a$ is the distance between plates. The TEM force does not depend on the area of the plates and dominates at large distances over the force produced by the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes, providing in this way a physical realization of the 1+1 dimensional Casimir effect. For the particular case of a coaxial circular cylindrical cavity, we compute the TE, TM and TEM contributions to the force, and find the critical distance for which the TEM modes dominate.
A technique for evaluating the electromagnetic Casimir energy in situations involving spherical or circular boundaries is presented. Zeta function regularization is unambiguously used from the start and the properties of Bessel and related zeta functions are central. Nontrivial results concerning these functions are given. While part of their application agrees with previous knowledge, new results like the zeta-regularized electromagnetic Casimir energy for a circular wire are included.
In this paper, we study the electromagnetic Casimir effects in the context of Lorentz symmetry violations. Two distinct approaches are considered: the first one is based on Horava-Lifshitz methodology, which explicitly presents a space-time anisotropy, while the second is a model that includes higher-derivatives in the field strength tensor and a preferential direction in the space-time. We assume that the electromagnetic field obeys the standard boundary conditions on two large parallel plates. Our main objectives are to investigate how the Casimir energy and pressure are modified in both Lor…
In this paper, the finite temperature Casimir force acting on a two-dimensional Casimir piston due to electromagnetic field is computed. It was found that if mixed boundary conditions are assumed on the piston and its opposite wall, then the Casimir force always tends to restore the piston towards the equilibrium position, regardless of the boundary conditions assumed on the walls transverse to the piston. In contrary, if pure boundary conditions are assumed on the piston and the opposite wall, then the Casimir force always tend to pull the piston towards the closer wall and away from the equi…
The electromagnetic Casimir energies of a spherical and a cylindrical cavity are analyzed semiclassically. The field theoretical self-stress of a spherical cavity with ideal metallic boundary conditions is reproduced to better than 1%. The subtractions in this case are unambiguous and the good agreement is interpreted as evidence that finite contributions from the exterior of the cavity are small. The semiclassical electromagnetic Casimir energy of a cylindrical cavity on the other hand vanishes to any order in the real reflection coefficients. The Casimir energy of a cylindrical cavity with a…
We study the finite temperature Casimir effect on a pair of parallel perfectly conducting plates in Randall-Sundrum model without using scalar field analogy. Two different ways of interpreting perfectly conducting conditions are discussed. The conventional way that uses perfectly conducting condition induced from 5D leads to three discrete mode corrections. This is very different from the result obtained from imposing 4D perfectly conducting conditions on the 4D massless and massive vector fields obtained by decomposing the 5D electromagnetic field. The latter only contains two discrete mode c…
Eigenmodes of electromagnetic field with perfectly conducting or infinitely permeable conditions on the boundary of a D-dimensional spherically symmetric cavity is derived explicitly. It is shown that there are (D-2) polarizations for TE modes and one polarization for TM modes, giving rise to a total of (D-1) polarizations. In case of a D-dimensional ball, the eigenfrequencies of electromagnetic field with perfectly conducting boundary condition coincides with the eigenfrequencies of gauge one-forms with relative boundary condition; whereas the eigenfrequencies of electromagnetic field with in…
The leading semiclassical estimates of the electromagnetic Casimir stresses on a spherical and a cylindrical metallic shell are within 1% of the field theoretical values. The electromagnetic Casimir energy for both geometries is given by two decoupled massless scalars that satisfy conformally covariant boundary conditions. Surface contributions vanish for smooth metallic boundaries and the finite electromagnetic Casimir energy in leading semiclassical approximation is due to quadratic fluctuations about periodic rays in the interior of the cavity only. Semiclassically the non-vanishing Casimir…
This paper studies two perfectly conducting parallel plates in the weak gravitational field on the surface of the Earth. Since the appropriate line element, to first order in the constant gravity acceleration g, is precisely of the Rindler type, we can exploit the formalism for studying Feynman Green functions in Rindler spacetime. Our analysis does not reduce the electromagnetic potential to the transverse part before quantization. It is instead fully covariant and well suited for obtaining all components of the regularized and renormalized energy-momentum tensor to arbitrary order in the gra…
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Casimir entropy is an important aspect of casimir effect.In this paper,we employ the path integral method to derive the total relation for casimir entropy and internal energy of arbitrary shaped objects in the presence of two,three and four dimensions scalar fields and electromagnetic field.We obtain the casimir entropy and internal energy of two nanoribbon immersed in scalar field and two nanospheres immersed in scalar field and electromagnetic field.The casmir entropy of two nanospheres immersed in the electromagnetic field in small interval of temperature variations,shown a different behavi…
In this paper we compute the leading order Casimir energy for the electromagnetic field (EM) in an open ended perfectly conducting rectangular waveguide in three spatial dimensions by a direct approach. For this purpose we first obtain the second quantized expression for the EM field with boundary conditions which would be appropriate for a waveguide. We then obtain the Casimir energy by two different procedures. Our main approach does not contain any analytic continuation techniques. The second approach involves the routine zeta function regularization along with some analytic continuation te…
Using recently developed techniques based on scattering theory, we find the electromagnetic Casimir energy for geometries involving semi-infinite planes, a case that is of particular interest in the design of microelectromechanical devices. We obtain both approximate analytic formulae and exact results requiring only modest numerical computation. Using these results, we analyze the effects of edges and orientation on the Casimir energy. We also demonstrate the accuracy, simplicity, and utility of our approximation scheme, which is based on a multiple reflection expansion.
Using covariant quantization of the electromagnetic field, the Casimir force per unit area experienced by a long conducting cylindrical shell, under both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions, is calculated. The renormalization procedure is based on the plasma cut-off frequency for real conductors. The real case of a gold (silver) cylindrical shell is considered and the corresponding electromagnetic Casimir pressure is computed. It is discussed that the Dirichlet and Neumann problems should be considered separately without adding their corresponding results.
We calculate the total internal energy, total energy density and pressure, and the free energy for the neutrino and electromagnetic fields in Einstein and closed Friedmann cosmological models. The Casimir contributions to all these quantities are separated. The asymptotic expressions for both the total internal energy and free energy, and for the Casimir contributions to them are found in the limiting cases of low and high temperatures. It is shown that the neutrino field does not possess a classical limit at high temperature. As for the electromagnetic field, we demonstrate that the total int…
Casimir effect in most general terms may be understood as a backreaction of a quantum system causing an adiabatic change of the external conditions under which it is placed. This paper is the second installment of a work scrutinizing this effect with the use of algebraic methods in quantum theory. The general scheme worked out in the first part is applied here to the discussion of particular models. We consider models of the quantum scalar field subject to external interaction with ``softened'' Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions on two parallel planes. We show that the case of electromag…
We derive the electromagnetic self-energy and the radiative correction to the gyromagnetic ratio of a free electron using a Casimir energy approach. This method provides an attractive and straightforward physical basis for the renormalization process.
Vacuum expectation values of the energy-momentum tensor and the Casimir forces are evaluated for scalar and electromagnetic fields in the geometry of two curved boundaries on background of the Robertson-Walker spacetime with negative spatial curvature. Robin boundary conditions are imposed in the case of the scalar field and perfect conductor boundary conditions are assumed for the electromagnetic field. We use the conformal relation between the Robertson-Walker and Rindler spacetimes and the corresponding results for two parallel plates moving with uniform proper acceleration through the Full…
A rigorous formulation of the problem of calculating the electromagnetic vacuum energy of an infinite dielectric cylinder is discussed. It is shown that the physically relevant spectrum of electromagnetic excitations includes the surface modes and photonic modes. The mathematical procedure of summing over this spectrum is proposed, and the transition to imaginary frequencies is accomplished. As a result, it is justified the imaginary-frequency representation for the vacuum energy which has been used in previous Casimir studies for this configuration.
Based on calculations involving an idealized boundary condition, it has long been assumed that the stress on a spherical conducting shell is repulsive. We use the more realistic case of a Drude dielectric to show that the stress is attractive, matching the generic behavior of Casimir forces in electromagnetism. We trace the discrepancy between these two cases to interactions between the electromagnetic quantum fluctuations and the dielectric material.
Casimir entropies due to quantum fluctuations in the interaction between electrical bodies can often be negative, either caused by dissipation or by geometry. Although generally such entropies vanish at zero temperature, consistent with the third law of thermodynamics (the Nernst heat theorem), there is a region in the space of temperature and separation between the bodies where negative entropy occurs, while positive interaction entropies arise for large distances or temperatures. Systematic studies on this phenomenon in the Casimir-Polder interaction between a polarizable nanoparticle or ato…
A general, exact formula is derived for the expectation value of the electromagnetic energy density of an inhomogeneous absorbing and dispersive dielectric medium in thermal equilibrium, assuming that the medium is well approximated as a continuum. From this formula we obtain the formal expression for the Casimir force density. Unlike most previous approaches to Casimir effects in which absorption is either ignored or admitted implicitly through the required analytic properties of the permittivity, we include dissipation explicitly via the coupling of each dipole oscillator of the medium to a …
Recently a great deal of interest in field theories formulated in a Lorentz violating framework has been developed. Here the Very Special Relativity (VSR) is considered. The main aspect in the VSR proposal is that laws of physics are invariant under the subgroups of the Poincaré group preserving the basic elements of special relativity. An important point is that the photon acquires a mass. In this context, the energy-momentum tensor for the electromagnetic field is calculated. From this, the Stefan-Boltzmann law and Casimir effect at finite temperature in VSR are obtained. The effects of temp…
In this paper we continue our program of computing Casimir self-entropies of idealized electrical bodies. Here we consider an electromagnetic $δ$-function sphere ("semitransparent sphere") whose electric susceptibility has a transverse polarization with arbitrary strength. Dispersion is incorporated by a plasma-like model. In the strong coupling limit, a perfectly conducting spherical shell is realized. We compute the entropy for both low and high temperatures. The TE self-entropy is negative as expected, but the TM self-entropy requires ultraviolet and infrared subtractions, and, surprisingly…
We investigate the Casimir effect at finite temperature in electromagnetic Rindler space, and find the Casimir energy is proportional to $\frac{T^4}{d^2}$ in the high temperature limit, where $T\approx 27 ^\circ\mathrm{C}$ is the temperature and $d\approx 100nm$ is a small cutoff. We propose to make metamaterials to mimic Rindler space and measure the predicted Casimir effect. Since the parameters of metamaterials we proposed are quite simple, this experiment would be easily implemented in laboratory.
The vacuum expectation value of the electromagnetic energy-momentum tensor between two parallel plates in spacetime dimensions D > 4 is calculated in the axial gauge. While the pressure between the plates agrees with the global Casimir force, the energy density is divergent at the plates and not compatible with the total energy which follows from the force. However, subtracting the divergent self-energies of the plates, the resulting energy is finite and consistent with the force. In analogy with the corresponding scalar case for spacetime dimensions D > 2, the divergent self-energy of a singl…
The Bogoliubov transformation in thermofield dynamics, an operator formalism for the finite-temperature quantum-field theory, is generalized to describe a field in arbitrary confined regions of space and time. Starting with the scalar field, the approach is extended to the electromagnetic field and the energy-momentum tensor is written via the Bogoliubov transformation. In this context, the Casimir effect is calculated for zero and non-zero temperature, and therefore it can be considered as a vacuum condensation effect of the electromagnetic field. This aspect opens an interesting perspective …
We calculate the Casimir interaction energy in $d=2$ spatial dimensions between two (zero-width) mirrors, one flat, and the other slightly curved, upon which {\em imperfect\/} conductor boundary conditions are imposed for an Electromagnetic (EM) field. Our main result is a second-order Derivative Expansion (DE) approximation for the Casimir energy, which is studied in different interesting limits. In particular, we focus on the emergence of a non-analyticity beyond the leading-order term in the DE, when approaching the limit of perfectly-conducting mirrors. We also show that the system conside…
The microscopic theory of the Casimir effect in the dielectric is studied in the framework when absorption is realized via a reservoir modeled by a set of oscillators with continuously distributed frquencies with the aim to see if the effects depend on the form of interaction with the reservoir. A simple case of the one-dimensional dielectric between two metallic plates is considered. Two possible models are investigated, the direct interaction of the electromagnetic field with the reservoir and indirect interaction via an intermediate oscillator imitating the atom. It is found that with the s…
A perfectly reflecting (Dirichlet) boundary condition at the edge of an impenetrable magnetic-flux-carrying tube of nonzero transverse size is imposed on the charged massive scalar matter field which is quantized outside the tube on a plane which is transverse to the tube. We show that the vacuum polarization effects outside the tube give rise to a macroscopic force acting at the increase of the tube radius (if the magnetic flux is held steady).
We compute the Casimir energy of the photon field in a de Sitter space and find it to be proportional to the size of the horizon, the same form of the holographic dark energy. We suggest to make metamaterials to mimic de Sitter space in laboratory and measure the predicted Casimir energy.
We study the contribution of the thermal zero modes to the Casimir free energy, in the case of a fluctuating electromagnetic (EM) field in the presence of real materials described by frequency-dependent, local and isotropic permittivity ($ε$) and permeability ($μ$) functions. Those zero modes, present at any finite temperature, become dominant at high temperatures, since the theory is dimensionally reduced. Our work, within the context of the Derivative Expansion (DE) approach, focusses on the emergence of non analyticities in that dimensionally reduced theory. We conclude that the DE is well …
The finite temperature Casimir free energy, entropy, and internal energy are considered anew for a conventional parallel-plate configuration, in the light of current discussions in the literature. In the case of an "ideal" metal, characterized by a refractive index equal to infinity for all frequencies, we recover, via a somewhat unconventional method, conventional results for the temperature dependence, meaning that the zero-frequency transverse electric mode contributes the same as the transverse magnetic mode. For a real metal, however, approximately obeying the Drude dispersive model at lo…
We derive and use an extremely simplified formula for the interaction Casimir energy for two separate bodies in the weak coupling regime for massless scalar fields. We derive closed form solutions for a general arrangement of two $δ$-function plates finite in one direction and infinite in another. We examine the situation of two parallel plates finite in both transverse directions.
The wedge geometry closed by a circular-cylindrical arc is a nontrivial generalization of the cylinder, which may have various applications. If the radial boundaries are not perfect conductors, the angular eigenvalues are only implicitly determined. When the speed of light is the same on both sides of the wedge, the Casimir energy is finite, unlike the case of a perfect conductor, where there is a divergence associated with the corners where the radial planes meet the circular arc. We advance the study of this system by reporting results on the temperature dependence for the conducting situati…
The Casimir energy for the transverse oscillations of a piecewise uniform closed string is calculated. The string is relativistic in the sense that the velocity of transverse waves is always equal to c. The great adaptibility of this string model with respect to various regularization methods is pointed out. We survey several regularization methods: the cutoff method, the complex contour integration method, and the zeta-function method. The most powerful method in the present case is the contour integration method. The Casimir energy turns out to be negative, and the more so the larger is the …
We derive boundary conditions for electromagnetic fields on a $δ$-function plate. The optical properties of such a plate are shown to necessarily be anisotropic in that they only depend on the transverse properties of the plate. We unambiguously obtain the boundary conditions for a perfectly conducting $δ$-function plate in the limit of infinite dielectric response. We show that a material does not "optically vanish" in the thin-plate limit. The thin-plate limit of a plasma slab of thickness $d$ with plasma frequency $ω_p^2=ζ_p/d$ reduces to a $δ$-function plate for frequencies ($ω=iζ$) satisf…
We review and assess a part of the recent work on Casimir apparatuses in the weak gravitational field of the Earth. For a free, real massless scalar field subject to Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions on the parallel plates, the resulting regularized and renormalized energy-momentum tensor is covariantly conserved, while the trace anomaly vanishes if the massless field is conformally coupled to gravity. Conformal coupling also ensures a finite Casimir energy and finite values of the pressure upon parallel plates. These results have been extended to an electromagnetic field subject to per…
We study the Casimir effect due to a massive vector field in a system of two parallel plates made of real materials, in an arbitrary magnetodielectric background. The plane waves satisfying the Proca equations are classified into transverse modes and longitudinal modes which have different dispersion relations. Transverse modes are further divided into type I and type II corresponding to TE and TM modes in the massless case. For general magnetodielectric media, we argue that the correct boundary conditions are the continuities of $\mathbf{H}_{\parallel}, ϕ, \mathbf{A}$ and $\pa_xA_x$, where $x…
Zero-point fluctuations in quantum fields give rise to observable forces between material bodies, the so-called Casimir forces. In this lecture I present some results of the theory of the Casimir effect, primarily formulated in terms of Green's functions. There is an intimate relation between the Casimir effect and van der Waals forces. Applications to conductors and dielectric bodies of various shapes will be given for the cases of scalar, electromagnetic, and fermionic fields. The dimensional dependence of the effect will be described. Finally, we ask the question: Is there a connection betw…
Zero-point fluctuations in quantum fields give rise to observable forces between material bodies, the so-called Casimir forces. In these lectures I present the theory of the Casimir effect, primarily formulated in terms of Green's functions. There is an intimate relation between the Casimir effect and van der Waals forces. Applications to conductors and dielectric bodies of various shapes will be given for the cases of scalar, electromagnetic, and fermionic fields. The dimensional dependence of the effect will be described. Finally, we ask the question: Is there a connection between the Casimi…
We investigate the renormalized vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor for the electromagnetic field inside and outside of a conducting cylindrical shell in the cosmic string spacetime. By using the generalized Abel-Plana formula, the vacuum expectation values are presented in the form of the sum of boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. The asymptotic behavior of the vacuum expectation values of the field square, energy density and stresses are investigated in various limiting cases.
An exact calculation of electromagnetic scattering from a perfectly conducting parabolic cylinder is employed to compute Casimir forces in several configurations. These include interactions between a parabolic cylinder and a plane, two parabolic cylinders, and a parabolic cylinder and an ordinary cylinder. To elucidate the effect of boundaries, special attention is focused on the "knife-edge" limit in which the parabolic cylinder becomes a half-plane. Geometrical effects are illustrated by considering arbitrary rotations of a parabolic cylinder around its focal axis, and arbitrary translations…
Recently the Casimir self-entropy of an electromagnetic $δ$-function shell was considered by two different groups, with apparently discordant conclusions, although both had concluded that a region of negative entropy existed for sufficiently weak coupling. We had found that the entropy contained an infrared divergence, which we argued should be discarded on physical grounds. On the contrary, Bordag and Kirsten recently found a completely finite self-entropy, although they, in fact, have to remove an infrared divergence. Apart from this, the high- and low-temperature results for finite coupling…
Vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor for the electromagnetic field are investigated for the geometry of a wedge with a coaxal cylindrical boundary. All boundaries are assumed to be perfectly conducting and both regions inside and outside the shell are considered. By using the generalized Abel-Plana formula, the vacuum expectation values are presented in the form of the sum of two terms. The first one corresponds to the geometry of the wedge without the cylindrical shell and the second term is induced by the presence of the shell. The vacuum energy densit…
We calculate the finite vacuum energy density of the scalar and electromagnetic fields inside a Casimir apparatus made up of two conducting parallel plates in a general weak gravitational field. The metric of the weak gravitational field has a small deviation from flat spacetime inside the apparatus and we find it by expanding the metric in terms of small parameters of the weak background. We show that the found metric can be transformed via a gauge transformation to the Fermi metric. We solve the Klein-Gordon equation exactly and find mode frequencies in Fermi spacetime. Using the fact that t…
Two-point functions, the mean field squared and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy-momentum tensor are investigated for the electromagnetic field in the geometry of parallel plates on background of $(D+1)$% -dimensional dS spacetime. We assume that the field is prepared in the Bunch-Davies vacuum state and on the plates a boundary condition is imposed that is a generalization of the perfectly conducting boundary condition for an arbitrary number of spatial dimensions. It is shown that for $D\geq 4$ the background gravitational field essentially changes the behavior of the VEVs at…
Reflection of electromagnetic waves from a periodic grating can be described in terms of a discrete coupled multichannel scattering problem. By modeling the grating as a space- and frequency-dependent dielectric, it is possible to use a variable phase method, applied to a generalized Helmholtz equation incorporating both transverse and longitudinal modes, to efficiently compute the scattering $S$-matrix. The projection onto transverse modes of this result, evaluated for imaginary wave vector, provides the information necessary for a Casimir energy calculation. This approach is of particular in…
We consider the problem of modeling of interaction of thin material films with fields of quantum electrodynamics. Taking into account the basic principles of quantum electrodynamics (locality, gauge invariance, renormalizability) we construct a single model for Casimir-like phenomena arising near the film boundary on distances much larger then Compton wavelength of the electron. In this region contribution of Dirac fields fluctuations are not essential and can be neglected. In the model the film is presented by a singular background field concentrated on a 2-dimensional surface and interacting…
We calculate the energy-momentum tensor due to electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations between two parallel hyperplanes in more than four dimensions, considering both metallic and MIT boundary conditions. Using the axial gauge, the problem can be mapped upon the corresponding problem with a massless, scalar field satisfying respectively Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. The pressure between the plates is constant while the energy density is found to diverge at the boundaries when there are extra dimensions. This can be related to the fact that Maxwell theory is then no longer conformally i…
The Casimir energy is evaluated for massless scalar fields under Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, and for the electromagnetic field with perfect conductor boundary conditions on one and two infinite parallel plates moving by uniform proper acceleration through the Fulling--Rindler vacuum in an arbitrary number of spacetime dimension. For the geometry of a single plate the both regions of the right Rindler wedge, (i) on the right (RR region) and (ii) on the left (RL region) of the plate are considered. The zeta function technique is used, in combination with contour integral representa…
We study the Casimir interaction energy due to the vacuum fluctuations of the Electromagnetic (EM) field in the presence of two mirrors, described by $2+1$-dimensional, generally nonlocal actions, which may contain both parity-conserving and parity-breaking terms. We compare the results with the ones corresponding to Chern-Simons boundary conditions, and evaluate the interaction energy for several particular situations.
