Unparticle Casimir effect

Abstract

In this paper we present the un-Casimir effect, namely the study of the Casimir energy in the presence of an unparticle component in addition to the electromagnetic field contribution. The distinctive feature of the un-Casimir effect is a fractalization of metallic plates. This result emerges through a new dependence of the Casimir energy on the plate separation that scales with a continuous power controlled by the unparticle dimension. As long as the perfect conductor approximation is valid, we find bounds on the unparticle scale that are independent of the effective coupling constant between the scale invariant sector and ordinary matter. We find regions of the parameter space such that for plate distances around $5\mu$m and larger the un-Casimir bound wins over the other bounds.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; v2: improved discussion, additional references, v3: title slightly changed, version matching that in press on Physics Letters