176 research outputs found
Brownian motion of a charged test particle near a reflecting boundary at finite temperature
We discuss the random motion of charged test particles driven by quantum
electromagnetic fluctuations at finite temperature in both the unbounded flat
space and flat spacetime with a reflecting boundary and calculate the mean
squared fluctuations in the velocity and position of the test particle. We show
that typically the random motion driven by the quantum fluctuations is one
order of magnitude less significant than that driven by thermal noise in the
unbounded flat space. However, in the flat space with a reflecting plane
boundary, the random motion of quantum origin can become much more significant
than that of thermal origin at very low temperature.Comment: 11 pages,no figures, Revtex
Casimir force on a piston
We consider a massless scalar field obeying Dirichlet boundary conditions on
the walls of a two-dimensional L x b rectangular box, divided by a movable
partition (piston) into two compartments of dimensions a x b and (L-a) x b. We
compute the Casimir force on the piston in the limit L -> infinity. Regardless
of the value of a/b, the piston is attracted to the nearest end of the box.
Asymptotic expressions for the Casimir force on the piston are derived for a <<
b and a >> b.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Final version, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Focusing Vacuum Fluctuations II
The quantization of the scalar and electromagnetic fields in the presence of
a parabolic mirror is further developed in the context of a geometric optics
approximation. We extend results in a previous paper to more general
geometries, and also correct an error in one section of that paper. We
calculate the mean squared scalar and electric fields near the focal line of a
parabolic cylindrical mirror. These quantities are found to grow as inverse
powers of the distance from the focus. We give a combination of analytic and
numerical results for the mean squared fields. In particular, we find that the
mean squared electric field can be either negative or positive, depending upon
the choice of parameters. The case of a negative mean squared electric field
corresponds to a repulsive Van der Waals force on an atom near the focus, and
to a region of negative energy density. Similarly, a positive value corresponds
to an attractive force and a possibility of atom trapping in the vicinity of
the focus.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures; additional discussion added in Sects. IV and I
A new "polarized version" of the Casimir Effect is measurable
We argue that the exactly computable, angle dependent, Casimir force between
parallel plates with different directions of conductivity can be measured.Comment: One Figure, 11 page
Onset voltage shift due to non-zero Landau ground state level in coherent magnetotransport
Coherent electron transport in double-barrier heterostructures with parallel
electric and magnetic fields is analyzed theoretically and with the aid of a
quantum simulator accounting for 3-dimensional transport effects. The
onset-voltage shift induced by the magnetic field in resonant tunneling diodes,
which was previously attributed to the cyclotron frequency inside the
well is found to arise from an upward shift of the non-zero ground (lowest)
Landau state energy in the entire quantum region where coherent transport takes
place. The spatial dependence of the cyclotron frequency is accounted for and
verified to have a negligible impact on resonant tunneling for the device and
magnetic field strength considered. A correction term for the onset-voltage
shift arising from the magnetic field dependence of the chemical potential is
also derived. The Landau ground state with its nonvanishing finite harmonic
oscillator energy is verified however to be the principal
contributor to the onset voltage shift at low temperatures.Comment: 13 pages, and 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Induced vacuum energy-momentum tensor in the background of a d-2 - brane in d+1 - dimensional space-time
Charged scalar field is quantized in the background of a static d-2 - brane
which is a core of the magnetic flux lines in flat d+1 - dimensional
space-time. We find that vector potential of the magnetic core induces the
energy-momentum tensor in the vacuum. The tensor components are periodic
functions of the brane flux and holomorphic functions of space dimension. The
dependence on the distance from the brane and on the coupling to the space-time
curvature scalar is comprehensively analysed.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figures, journal version, some references adde
Spontaneous emission between an unusual pair of plates
We compute the modification in the spontaneous emission rate for a two-level
atom when it is located between two parallel plates of different nature: a
perfectly conducting plate and an infinitely permeable
one . We also discuss the case of two infinitely permeable
plates. We compare our results with those found in the literature for the case
of two perfectly conducting plates.Comment: latex file 4 pages, 4 figure
Calculating Casimir Energies in Renormalizable Quantum Field Theory
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 himself suggested that a similar attractive self-stress existed for a
conducting spherical shell, but Boyer obtained a repulsive stress. Other
geometries and higher dimensions have been considered over the years. Local
effects, and divergences associated with surfaces and edges have been studied
by several authors. Quite recently, Graham et al. have re-examined such
calculations, using conventional techniques of perturbative quantum field
theory to remove divergences, and have suggested that previous self-stress
results may be suspect. Here we show that the examples considered in their work
are misleading; in particular, it is well-known that in two dimensions a
circular boundary has a divergence in the Casimir energy for massless fields,
while for general dimension not equal to an even integer the corresponding
Casimir energy arising from massless fields interior and exterior to a
hyperspherical shell is finite. It has also long been recognized that the
Casimir energy for massive fields is divergent for . These conclusions
are reinforced by a calculation of the relevant leading Feynman diagram in
and three dimensions. There is therefore no doubt of the validity of the
conventional finite Casimir calculations.Comment: 25 pages, REVTeX4, 1 ps figure. Revision includes new subsection 4B
and Appendix, and other minor correction
Fluctuations of the Retarded Van der Waals Force
The retarded Van der Waals force between a polarizable particle and a
perfectly conducting plate is re-examined. The expression for this force given
by Casimir and Polder represents a mean force, but there are large fluctuations
around this mean value on short time scales which are of the same order of
magnitude as the mean force itself. However, these fluctuations occur on time
scales which are typically of the order of the light travel time between the
atom and the plate. As a consequence, they will not be observed in an
experiment which measures the force averaged over a much longer time. In the
large time limit, the magnitude of the mean squared velocity of a test particle
due to this fluctuating Van der Waals force approaches a constant, and is
similar to a Brownian motion of a test particle in an thermal bath with an
effective temperature. However the fluctuations are not isotropic in this case,
and the shift in the mean square velocity components can even be negative. We
interpret this negative shift to correspond to a reduction in the velocity
spread of a wavepacket. The force fluctuations discussed in this paper are
special case of the more general problem of stress tensor fluctuations. These
are of interest in a variety of areas fo physics, including gravity theory.
Thus the effects of Van der Waals force fluctuations serve as a useful model
for better understanding quantum effects in gravity theory.Comment: 14 pages, no figure
Exact Casimir-Polder potential between a particle and an ideal metal cylindrical shell and the proximity force approximation
We derive the exact Casimir-Polder potential for a polarizable microparticle
inside an ideal metal cylindrical shell using the Green function method. The
exact Casimir-Polder potential for a particle outside a shell, obtained
recently by using the Hamiltonian approach, is rederived and confirmed. The
exact quantum field theoretical result is compared with that obtained using the
proximity force approximation and a very good agreement is demonstrated at
separations below 0.1, where is the radius of the cylinder. The
developed methods are applicable in the theory of topological defects.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
- …