dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThe Energy Density in the Casimir Effect
| Authors | V. Sopova, L. H. Ford |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0204125 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0204125 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevD.66.045026 |
| Journal | Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 045026 |
Abstract
We compute the expectations of the squares of the electric and magnetic fields in the vacuum region outside a half-space filled with a uniform dispersive dielectric. We find a positive energy density of the electromagnetic field which diverges at the interface despite the inclusion of dispersion in the calculation. We also investigate the mean squared fields and the energy density in the vacuum region between two parallel half-spaces. Of particular interest is the sign of the energy density. We find that the energy density is described by two terms: a negative position independent (Casimir) term, and a positive position dependent term with a minimum value at the center of the vacuum region. We argue that in some cases, including physically realizable ones, the negative term can dominate in a given region between the two half-spaces, so the overall energy density can be negative in this region.
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"abstract": "We compute the expectations of the squares of the electric and magnetic\nfields in the vacuum region outside a half-space filled with a uniform\ndispersive dielectric. We find a positive energy density of the electromagnetic\nfield which diverges at the interface despite the inclusion of dispersion in\nthe calculation. We also investigate the mean squared fields and the energy\ndensity in the vacuum region between two parallel half-spaces. Of particular\ninterest is the sign of the energy density. We find that the energy density is\ndescribed by two terms: a negative position independent (Casimir) term, and a\npositive position dependent term with a minimum value at the center of the\nvacuum region. We argue that in some cases, including physically realizable\nones, the negative term can dominate in a given region between the two\nhalf-spaces, so the overall energy density can be negative in this region.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0204125",
"authors": [
"V. Sopova",
"L. H. Ford"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"gr-qc",
"hep-th"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevD.66.045026",
"journal_ref": "Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 045026",
"title": "The Energy Density in the Casimir Effect",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0204125"
},
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