Focusing Vacuum Fluctuations
Quantum Physics
2016-09-08 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
The focusing of the vacuum modes of a quantized field by a parabolic mirror is investigated. We use a geometric optics approximation to calculate the energy density and mean squared field averages for scalar and electromagnetic fields near the focus. We find that these quantities grow as an inverse power of the distance to the focus. There is an attractive Casimir-Polder force on an atom which will draw it into the focus. Some estimates of the magnitude of the effects of this focusing indicate that it may be observable.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0003129,
title = {Focusing Vacuum Fluctuations},
author = {L. H. Ford and N. F. Svaiter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0003129},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
20 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected, two refs and some comments added