Related papers: Dirichlet Spheres in Continuum Quantum Field Theor…
Casimir forces are conventionally computed by analyzing the effects of boundary conditions on a fluctuating quantum field. Although this analysis provides a clean and calculationally tractable idealization, it does not always accurately…
I examine the effect of trying to impose a Dirichlet boundary condition on a scalar field by coupling it to a static background. The zero point -- or Casimir -- energy of the field diverges in the limit that the background forces the field…
We study the Casimir problem as the limit of a conventional quantum field theory coupled to a smooth background. The Casimir energy diverges in the limit that the background forces the field to vanish on a surface. We show that this…
It is well known that boundary conditions on quantum fields produce divergences in the renormalized energy-momentum tensor near the boundaries. Although irrelevant for the computation of Casimir forces between different bodies, the…
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…
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…
The Casimir energy corresponding to a massive scalar field with Dirichlet boundary conditions on a spherical bag is obtained. The field is considered, separately, inside and outside the bag. The renormalization procedure that is necessary…
We study the problem of imposing Dirichlet-like boundary conditions along a static spatial curve, in a planar Noncommutative Quantum Field Theory model. After constructing interaction terms that impose the boundary conditions, we discuss…
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 Casimir effect in an inhomogeneous dielectric is investigated using Lifshitz's theory of electromagnetic vacuum energy. A permittivity function that depends continuously on one Cartesian coordinate is chosen, bounded on each side by…
We study the Dirichlet Casimir effect for a complex scalar field on two noncommutative spatial coordinates plus a commutative time. To that end, we introduce Dirichlet-like boundary conditions on a curve contained in the spatial plane, in…
From the beginning of the subject, calculations of quantum vacuum energies or Casimir energies have been plagued with two types of divergences: The total energy, which may be thought of as some sort of regularization of the zero-point…
In this paper the quantum vacuum energies induced by massive fluctuations of one real scalar field on a configuration of two partially transparent plates are analysed. The physical properties of the infinitely thin plates are characterized…
We analyze the role of boundaries in the infrared behavior of quantum field theories. By means of a novel method we calculate the vacuum energy for a massless scalar field confined between two homogeneous parallel plates with the most…
The local Casimir energy is investigated for a wedge with and without a circular outer boundary due to the confinement of a massless scalar field with general curvature coupling parameter and satisfying the Dirichlet boundary conditions.…
We obtain new expressions for the Casimir energy between plates that are mimicked by the most general possible boundary conditions allowed by the principles of quantum field theory. This result enables to provide the quantum vacuum energy…
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 regularized total Casimir energy in spacetimes with boundaries is not in general equal to the integral of the regularized energy density. This paradoxical phenomenon is most transparently analyzed in the simple example of a massless…
We study the vacuum interaction of a scalar field and two concentric spheres defined by a singular potential on their surfaces. The potential is a linear combination of the Dirac-$\delta$ and its derivative. The presence of the delta prime…
We study the effect of boundary conditions on vacuum polarization for charged scalar fields in two space-time dimensions. We find that both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions lead to screening. In the Dirichlet case, the vacuum…