Casimir force on a piston
Quantum Physics
2007-05-23 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We consider a massless scalar field obeying Dirichlet boundary conditions on the walls of a two-dimensional L x b rectangular box, divided by a movable partition (piston) into two compartments of dimensions a x b and (L-a) x b. We compute the Casimir force on the piston in the limit L -> infinity. Regardless of the value of a/b, the piston is attracted to the nearest end of the box. Asymptotic expressions for the Casimir force on the piston are derived for a << b and a >> b.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0310184,
title = {Casimir force on a piston},
author = {R. M. Cavalcanti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0310184},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
10 pages, 1 figure. Final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D