Quantum open systems approach to the dynamical Casimir effect

We analyze the introduction of dissipative effects in the study of the dynamical Casimir effect. We consider a toy model for an electromagnetic cavity that contains a semiconducting thin shell, which is irradiated with short laser pulses in order to produce periodic oscillations of its conductivity. The coupling between the quantum field in the cavity and the microscopic degrees of freedom of the shell induces dissipation and noise in the dynamics of the field. We argue that the photon creation process should be described in terms of a damped oscillator with nonlocal dissipation and colored noise.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the "Wokshop on Quantum Nonstationary Systems", Brasilia 2009 (Special Issue, Physica Scripta

Quantum dissipative effects in moving imperfect mirrors: sidewise and normal motions

We extend our previous work on the functional approach to the dynamical Casimir effect, to compute dissipative effects due to the relative motion of two flat, parallel, imperfect mirrors in vacuum. The interaction between the internal degrees of freedom of the mirrors and the vacuum field is modeled with a nonlocal term in the vacuum field action. We consider two different situations: either the motion is `normal', i.e., the mirrors advance or recede changing the distance $a(t)$ between them; or it is `parallel', namely, $a$ remains constant, but there is a relative sliding motion of the mirrors' planes. For the latter, we show explicitly that there is a non-vanishing frictional force, even for a constant shifting speed.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

Using boundary methods to compute the Casimir energy

We discuss new approaches to compute numerically the Casimir interaction energy for waveguides of arbitrary section, based on the boundary methods traditionally used to compute eigenvalues of the 2D Helmholtz equation. These methods are combined with the Cauchy's theorem in order to perform the sum over modes. As an illustration, we describe a point-matching technique to compute the vacuum energy for waveguides containing media with different permittivities. We present explicit numerical evaluations for perfect conducting surfaces in the case of concentric corrugated cylinders and a circular cylinder inside an elliptic one.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of QFEXT09, Norman, OK

Quantum dissipative effects in graphene-like mirrors

We study quantum dissipative effects due to the accelerated motion of a single, imperfect, zero-width mirror. It is assumed that the microscopic degrees of freedom on the mirror are confined to it, like in plasma or graphene sheets. Therefore, the mirror is described by a vacuum polarization tensor $\Pi_{\alpha\beta}$ concentrated on a time-dependent surface. Under certain assumptions about the microscopic model for the mirror, we obtain a rather general expression for the Euclidean effective action, a functional of the time-dependent mirror's position, in terms of two invariants that characterize the tensor $\Pi_{\alpha\beta}$. The final result can be written in terms of the TE and TM reflection coefficients of the mirror, with qualitatively different contributions coming from them. We apply that general expression to derive the imaginary part of the `in-out' effective action, which measures dissipative effects induced by the mirror's motion, in different models, in particular for an accelerated graphene sheet.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Charge without charge, regular spherically symmetric solutions and the Einstein-Born-Infeld theory

The aim of this paper is to continue the research of JMP 46, 042501 (2005) of regular static spherically symmetric spacetimes in Einstein-Born-Infeld theories from the point of view of the spacetime geometry and the electromagnetic structure. The energy conditions, geodesic completeness and the main features of the horizons of this spacetime are explicitly shown. A new static spherically symmetric dyonic solution in Einstein-Born-Infeld theory with similar good properties as in the regular pure electric and magnetic cases of our previous work, is presented and analyzed. Also, the circumvention of a version of "no go" theorem claiming the non existence of regular electric black holes and other electromagnetic static spherically configurations with regular center is explained by dealing with a more general statement of the problem.Comment: Figures in Int J Theor Phys (Online First

The effect of concurrent geometry and roughness in interacting surfaces

We study the interaction energy between two surfaces, one of them flat, the other describable as the composition of a small-amplitude corrugation and a slightly curved, smooth surface. The corrugation, represented by a spatially random variable, involves Fourier wavelengths shorter than the (local) curvature radii of the smooth component of the surface. After averaging the interaction energy over the corrugation distribution, we obtain an expression which only depends on the smooth component. We then approximate that functional by means of a derivative expansion, calculating explicitly the leading and next-to-leading order terms in that approximation scheme. We analyze the resulting interplay between shape and roughness corrections for some specific corrugation models in the cases of electrostatic and Casimir interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Derivative expansion for the Casimir effect at zero and finite temperature in d+1d+1 dimensions

We apply the derivative expansion approach to the Casimir effect for a real scalar field in $d$ spatial dimensions, to calculate the next to leading order term in that expansion, namely, the first correction to the proximity force approximation. The field satisfies either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions on two static mirrors, one of them flat and the other gently curved. We show that, for Dirichlet boundary conditions, the next to leading order term in the Casimir energy is of quadratic order in derivatives, regardless of the number of dimensions. Therefore it is local, and determined by a single coefficient. We show that the same holds true, if $d \neq 2$, for a field which satisfies Neumann conditions. When $d=2$, the next to leading order term becomes nonlocal in coordinate space, a manifestation of the existence of a gapless excitation (which do exist also for $d> 2$, but produce sub-leading terms). We also consider a derivative expansion approach including thermal fluctuations of the scalar field. We show that, for Dirichlet mirrors, the next to leading order term in the free energy is also local for any temperature $T$. Besides, it interpolates between the proper limits: when $T \to 0$ it tends to the one we had calculated for the Casimir energy in $d$ dimensions, while for $T \to \infty$ it corresponds to the one for a theory in $d-1$ dimensions, because of the expected dimensional reduction at high temperatures. For Neumann mirrors in $d=3$, we find a nonlocal next to leading order term for any $T>0$.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.