Related papers: Quantum vacuum effects from boundaries of designer…
We compute for various perturbed conformal field theories the vacuum energies by means of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz. Depending on the infrared and ultraviolet divergencies of the models, governed by the scaling dimensions of the…
It has recently been proposed that vacuum energy is zero in spite of the quantum-field fluctuations that occur everywhere, even at absolute zero. The implication is that dark energy must have a different origin, unrelated to vacuum energy.…
Quantum vacuum energy (Casimir energy) is reviewed for a mathematical audience as a topic in spectral theory. Then some one-dimensional systems are solved exactly, in terms of closed classical paths and periodic orbits. The relations among…
The problem of cosmological constant and vacuum energy is usually thought of as the subject of general relativity. However, the vacuum energy is important for the Universe even in the absence of gravity, i.e. in the case when the Newton…
The vacuum is the lowest energy state of a field in a certain region of space. This definition implies that no particles can be present in the vacuum state. In classical physics, the only features of vacuum are those of its geometry. For…
In quantum field theory there is now a well developed technique, effective field theory, which allows one to obtain low energy quantum predictions in ``non-renormalizable'' theories, using only the degrees of freedom and interactions…
It is argued that the zero-point energies of free quantum fields diverge at most quadratically and not quartically, as is generally believed. This is a consequence of the relativistic invariance which requires that the energy density of the…
It is found that the existence of spacetime foam leads to a situation in which the number of fundamental quantum bosonic fields is a variable quantity. The general aspects of an exact theory that allows for a variable number of fields are…
We present and study a possible mechanism of extracting energies from the vacuum by external classical fields. Taking a constant magnetic field as an example, we discuss why and how the vacuum energy can be released in the context of…
In the framework of an effective field theory of general relativity a model of scalar and vector bosons interacting with the metric field is considered. It is shown in the framework of a two-loop order calculation that for the cosmological…
Quantum vacuum energy has been known to have observable consequences since 1948 when Casimir calculated the force of attraction between parallel uncharged plates, a phenomenon confirmed experimentally with ever increasing precision. Casimir…
By example of a model with a spatially global scalar field, we show that the energy density of zero-point modes is exponentially suppressed by an average number of field quanta in a finite volume with respect to the energy density in the…
The failure to calculate the vacuum energy is a central problem in theoretical physics. Presumably the problem arises from the insistent use of effective field theory reasoning in a context that is well beyond its intended scope. If one…
A new approach to generalised Casimir type of problems is derived within the context of renormalisable quantum field theory (QFT). We study the simplest case of a massive fluctuating boson field coupled to a time-independent background…
In this thesis, we investigate quantum vacuum effects in the presence of gravitational fields. After discussing the general theory of vacuum effects in strong fields we apply it to the relevant issue of the interaction of the quantum vacuum…
There appears to be three, perhaps related, ways of approaching the nature of vacuum energy . The first is to say that it is just the lowest energy state of a given, usually quantum, system. The second is to equate vacuum energy with the…
The consensus among many theoretical physicists is that the calculated contribution of the quantum vacuum to the total energy density of the universe is approximately $10^{121}$ times the observed energy density. This is thought to be one…
We consider a finite-size spherical bubble with a nonequilibrium value of the $q$-field, where the bubble is immersed in an infinite vacuum with the constant equilibrium value $q_{0}$ for the $q$-field (this $q_{0}$ has already cancelled an…
We develop a non-conventional description of the vacuum energy in quantum field theory in terms of quantum entropy. Precisely, we show that the vacuum energy of any non-interacting quantum field at zero temperature is proportional to the…
Quantum field theory (QFT) in classical spacetime has revealed interesting and puzzling aspects about gravitational systems, in particular black hole thermodynamics and its information processing. Although quantum gravitational effects may…