17 research outputs found
QED vacuum between an unusual pair of plates
We consider the photon field between an unusual configuration of infinite
parallel plates: a perfectly conducting plate and an
infinitely permeable one . After quantizing the vector potential
in the Coulomb gauge, we obtain explicit expressions for the vacuum expectation
values of field operators of the form and . These field correlators allow us to reobtain the Casimir
effect for this set up and to discuss the light velocity shift caused by the
presence of plates (Scharnhorst effect \cite{Scharnhorst,Barton,BarScharn}) for
both scalar and spinor QED.Comment: Latex, 16 pages, no figure
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
Dynamical Casimir effect with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions
We derive the radiation pressure force on a non-relativistic moving plate in
1+1 dimensions. We assume that a massless scalar field satisfies either
Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions (BC) at the instantaneous position of
the plate. We show that when the state of the field is invariant under time
translations, the results derived for Dirichlet and Neumann BC are equal. We
discuss the force for a thermal field state as an example for this case. On the
other hand, a coherent state introduces a phase reference, and the two types of
BC lead to different results.Comment: 12 page
Zeta function method and repulsive Casimir forces for an unusual pair of plates at finite temperature
We apply the generalized zeta function method to compute the Casimir energy
and pressure between an unusual pair of parallel plates at finite temperature,
namely: a perfectly conducting plate and an infinitely permeable one. The high
and low temperature limits of these quantities are discussed; relationships
between high and low temperature limits are estabkished by means of a modified
version of the temperature inversion symmetry.Comment: latex file 9 pages, 3 figure
Normal and Lateral Casimir Forces between Deformed Plates
The Casimir force between macroscopic bodies depends strongly on their shape
and orientation. To study this geometry dependence in the case of two deformed
metal plates, we use a path integral quantization of the electromagnetic field
which properly treats the many-body nature of the interaction, going beyond the
commonly used pairwise summation (PWS) of van der Waals forces. For arbitrary
deformations we provide an analytical result for the deformation induced change
in Casimir energy, which is exact to second order in the deformation amplitude.
For the specific case of sinusoidally corrugated plates, we calculate both the
normal and the lateral Casimir forces. The deformation induced change in the
Casimir interaction of a flat and a corrugated plate shows an interesting
crossover as a function of the ratio of the mean platedistance H to the
corrugation length \lambda: For \lambda \ll H we find a slower decay \sim
H^{-4}, compared to the H^{-5} behavior predicted by PWS which we show to be
valid only for \lambda \gg H. The amplitude of the lateral force between two
corrugated plates which are out of registry is shown to have a maximum at an
optimal wavelength of \lambda \approx 2.5 H. With increasing H/\lambda \gtrsim
0.3 the PWS approach becomes a progressively worse description of the lateral
force due to many-body effects. These results may be of relevance for the
design and operation of novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and other
nanoscale devices.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure