Suppressing vacuum fluctuations with vortex excitations

The Casimir force for a planar gauge model is studied considering perfect conducting and perfect magnetically permeable boundaries. By using an effective model describing planar vortex excitations, we determine the effect these can have on the Casimir force between parallel lines. Two different mappings between models are considered for the system under study, where generic boundary conditions can be more easily applied and the Casimir force be derived in a more straightforward way. It is shown that vortex excitations can be an efficient suppressor of vacuum fluctuations. In particular, for the model studied here, a planar Chern-Simons type of model that allows for the presence of vortex matter, the Casimir force is found to be independent of the choice of boundary conditions, at least for the more common types, like Neumann, perfect conducting and magnetically permeable boundary conditions. We give an interpretation for these results and some possible applications for them are also discussed.