Related papers: Quantum vacuum fluctuations
We propose that the quantum vacuum may be considered as a gas of virtual photons which carry a non-vanishing linear momentum as well as a non-vanishing energy. We study, in particular, the Casimir effect in order to show that these virtual…
Several problems at the interface between the field-theoretical description of the Casimir effect and experiments on measuring the Casimir force are discussed. One of these problems is connected with the definition of the Casimir free…
The Casimir effect is a well-known macroscopic consequence of quantum vacuum fluctuations, but whereas the static effect (Casimir force) has long been observed experimentally, the dynamic Casimir effect is up to now undetected. From an…
We investigate the gravitational property of the quantum vacuum by treating its large energy density predicted by quantum field theory seriously and assuming that it does gravitate to obey the equivalence principle of general relativity. We…
Vacuum fluctuations play a central role in spontaneous emission. Recently, it has been suggested that these fluctuations could also be fundamental in the absorption dynamics, breaking the superposition inherent to the linear quantum…
Modes have steadily influenced the understanding of physical systems through time. At least since the prediction of the Casimir effect, they also play a very important role in Casimir Physics and in the understanding of the different…
We investigate the thermodynamical properties of quantum fields in curved spacetime. Our approach is to consider quantum fields in curved spacetime as a quantum system undergoing an out-of-equilibrium transformation. The non-equilibrium…
The quantum vacuum (Casimir) energy arising from noninteracting massless quanta is known to induce a long-range force, while decays exponentially for massive fields and separations larger than the inverse mass of the quanta involved. Here,…
The electromagnetic Casimir effect manifests as the interaction between uncharged conducting objects that are placed in a vacuum. More generally, the Casimir-like effect denotes an induced interaction between external bodies in a…
The stress-energy tensor of the quantum vacuum is studied for the particular case of quantum electrodynamics (QED), that is a fictituous universe where only the electromagnetic and the electron-positron fields exist. The integrals involved…
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…
It is shown that the curvature of space-time induced by vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields should be proportional to the square of Newton's constant $G$. This offers a possible explanation for the success of the approximation $G m^6 c^2…
We introduce the concept of Casimir friction, i.e. friction due to quantum fluctuations. In this first article we describe the calculation of a constant torque, arising from the scattering of quantum fluctuations, on a dielectric rotating…
The quantum model of homogeneous and isotropic universe filled with the uniform scalar field is considered. This model predicts effective inverse square-law dependence of the mean total energy density <\rho> on the expectation value of…
At energies much less than the electron mass $m$ the effects of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum due to virtual electron loops can be included by extending the Maxwell Lagrangian by additional non-renormalizable terms corresponding to the…
When two or more objects move relative to one another in vacuum, they experience a drag force which, at zero temperature, usually goes under the name of quantum friction. This contactless non-conservative interaction is mediated by the…
With the decline of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the recent experiments indicating that quantum mechanics does actually embody 'objective reality', one might ask if a 'mechanical', conceptual model for quantum…
In the presence of an external field, the imposition of specific boundary conditions can lead to interesting new manifestations of the Casimir effect. In particular, it is shown here that even a single conducting plate may experience a…
Wave noise is correlated. While it may look random in space, correlations appear in space-time, because the noise is carried by wave propagation. These correlations of wave noise give rise to fluctuation forces such as the Casimir force,…
It is widely believed that as one of the candidates for dark energy, the cosmological constant should relate directly with the quantum vacuum. Despite decades of theoretical effects, however, there is still no quantitative interpretation of…