Casimir effect from a scattering approach
Quantum Physics
2015-01-28 v1
Abstract
The Casimir force is a spectacular consequence of the existence of vacuum fluctuations and thus deserves a place in courses on quantum theory. We argue that the scattering approach within a one-dimensional field theory is well suited to discuss the Casimir effect. It avoids in a transparent way divergences appearing in the evaluation of the vacuum energy. Furthermore, the scattering approach connects in a natural manner to the standard discussion of one-dimensional scattering problems in a quantum theory course. Finally, it allows to introduce students to the methods employed in the current research literature to determine the Casimir force in real-world systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.6919,
title = {Casimir effect from a scattering approach},
author = {Gert-Ludwig Ingold and Astrid Lambrecht},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.6919},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figures