Related papers: Vacuum Energy as Spectral Geometry
We present a general procedure for calculating one-loop ``Casimir'' energy densities for a scalar field coupled to a fixed potential in renormalized quantum field theory. We implement direct subtraction of counterterms computed precisely in…
We apply a `dimensional reduction' mechanism to the evaluation of the functional integral for the vacuum energy of a real scalar field in the presence of non-trivial backgrounds, in d+1 dimensions. The reduction is implemented by applying a…
We discuss a numerical relation between the cosmological constant and the vacuum energy arising from the Casimir effect in extra dimensions
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…
We review recent work on the Casimir interaction energy between cylindrical shells. We include proposals for future experiments involving cylinders, such us a null experiment using quasi-concentric cylinders, a cylinder in front a…
A general calculation of Casimir energies --in an arbitrary number of dimensions-- for massless quantized fields in spherically symmetric cavities is carried out. All the most common situations, including scalar and spinor fields, the…
A simple description of the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) problem for non-experts is presented. Basic features of cosmology with non-zero vacuum energy are discussed. The astronomical data which indicate that the universe is filled…
The Casimir problem is usually posed as the response of a fluctuating quantum field to externally imposed boundary conditions. In reality, however, no interaction is strong enough to enforce a boundary condition on all frequencies of a…
Quantum systems often contain negative energy densities. In general relativity, negative energies lead to time advancement, rather than the usual time delay. As a result, some Casimir systems appear to violate energy conditions that would…
A simple method is proposed to construct the spectral zeta functions required for calculating the electromagnetic vacuum energy with boundary conditions given on a sphere or on an infinite cylinder. When calculating the Casimir energy in…
We use a functional approach to the Casimir effect in order to evaluate the exact vacuum energy for a real scalar field in $d+1$ dimensions, in the presence of backgrounds that, in a particular limit, impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on…
The Casimir energy is computed in the geometry of interest for the most precise experiments, a plane and a sphere in electromagnetic vacuum. The scattering formula is developed on adapted plane-waves and multipole basis, leading to an…
When the vacuum is partitioned by material boundaries with arbitrary shape, one can define the zero-point energy and the free energy of the electromagnetic waves in it: this can be done, independently of the nature of the boundaries, in the…
The vacuum energies corresponding to massive Dirac fields with the boundary conditions of the MIT bag model are obtained. The calculations are done with the fields occupying the regions inside and outside the bag, separately. The…
New results for scalar Casimir self-energies arising from interior modes are presented for the three integrable tetrahedral cavities. Since the eigenmodes are all known, the energies can be directly evaluated by mode summation, with a…
Vacuum energy is a simple model for dark energy driving an accelerated expansion of the universe. If the vacuum energy is inhomogeneous in spacetime then it must be interacting. We present the general equations for a spacetime-dependent…
We compute the ground state energy of a massive scalar field in the background of a cylindrical shell whose potential is given by a delta function. The zero point energy is expressed in terms of the Jost function of the related scattering…
We consider the vacuum energy for a scalar field subject to a frequency dependent boundary condition. The effect of a frequency cut-off is described in terms of an {\it incomplete} $\zeta$-function. The use of the Debye asymptotic expansion…
We discuss the main myths related to the vacuum energy and cosmological constant, such as: ``unbearable lightness of space-time''; the dominating contribution of zero point energy of quantum fields to the vacuum energy; non-zero vacuum…
The issue of the vacuum energy of quantum fields is briefly reviewed. It is argued that this energy is normally either much too large or much too small to account for the dark energy, However, there are a few proposals in which it would be…