Related papers: Quantum Vacuum Energy in Graphs and Billiards
Gedanken experiments are used to explore properties of quantum vacuum energy that are currently challenging to explore experimentally. A constant lateral Casimir force is predicted to exist between two overlapping finite parallel plates at…
Modern quantum field theory has offered us a very intriguing picture of empty space. The vacuum state is no longer an inert, motionless state. We are instead dealing with an entity teeming with fluctuations that continuously produce virtual…
Although Casimir, or quantum vacuum, forces between distinct bodies, or self-stresses of individual bodies, have been calculated by a variety of different methods since 1948, they have always been plagued by divergences. Some of these…
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.…
We consider and review the emergence of singular energy densities and field fluctuations at sharp boundaries or point-like field sources in the vacuum. The presence of singular energy densities of a field may be relevant from a conceptual…
We argue that calculating vacuum energy requires quantum field theory whose axioms are adapted to curved spacetime. In this context, we suggest that non-zero vacuum energy is connected to dynamical breaking of electroweak symmetry. The…
We consider a (2+1)-dimensional holographic CFT on a static spacetime with globally timelike Killing vector. Taking the spatial geometry to be closed but otherwise general we expect a non-trivial vacuum energy at zero temperature due to the…
The origin of the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe is a major problem of modern cosmology and theoretical physics. Simple estimations of the contribution of vacuum to the density energy of the universe in quantum field…
We calculate the vacuum (Casimir) energy for a scalar field with $\phi^4$ self-interaction in (1+1) dimensions non perturbatively, i.e., in all orders of the self-interaction. We consider massive and massless fields in a finite box with…
Vacuum field fluctuations exert a radiation pressure which induces mechanical effects on scatterers. The question naturally arises whether the energy of vacuum fluctuations gives rise to inertia and gravitation in agreement with the general…
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…
The primary focus of this dissertation is the study of the Casimir effect and the possibility that this phenomenon may serve as a mechanism to mediate higher dimensional stability, and also as a possible mechanism for creating a small but…
We obtain an hybrid expression for the heat-kernel, and from that the density of the free energy, for a minimally coupled scalar field in a Schwarzschild geometry at finite temperature. This gives us the zero-point energy density as a…
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 quantum vacuum interaction energy between a pair of semitransparent two-dimensional plates in the topological background of a sine-Gordon kink is studied. Quantum vacuum oscillations around the sine-Gordon kink solution can be…
The Casimir effect refers to the existence of a macroscopic force between conducting plates in vacuum due to quantum fluctuations of fields. These forces play an important role, among other things, in the design of nano-scale mechanical…
Values for the vacuum energy of scalar fields under Dirichlet and Neuman boundary conditions on an infinite clylindrical surface are found, and they happen to be of opposite signs. In contrast with classical works, a complete zeta function…
We calculate the gravitational self-energy of vacuum quantum field fluctuations using a Casimir approach. We find that the Casimir gravitational self-energy density can account for the measured dark energy density when the SUSY-breaking…
In 1953 Casimir proposed a semiclassical model for the electron based on the concept that net inward radiation pressure from the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations fields (as in the Casimir effect, generally) might play the role of…
We study the vacuum polarization (Casimir) energy in renormalizable, continuum quantum field theory in the presence of a background field, designed to impose Dirichlet boundary conditions on the fluctuating quantum field. In two and three…