Difference between the vacuum Casimir energies for grounded and isolated conductors

We study the vacuum (i.e., zero-temperature) Casimir energy for a system of neutral conductors which are isolated, as opposed to grounded. The former is meant to describe a situation where the total charge on each conductor, as well as all of its fluctuations, vanishes, while the latter describes a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fosco, Cesar Daniel, Lombardo, Fernando Cesar, Mazzitelli, Francisco Diego
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/48052
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/48052
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Casimir Effect
Quantum Vacuum
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:We study the vacuum (i.e., zero-temperature) Casimir energy for a system of neutral conductors which are isolated, as opposed to grounded. The former is meant to describe a situation where the total charge on each conductor, as well as all of its fluctuations, vanishes, while the latter describes a situation where the conductors are connected to a charge reservoir. We compute the difference between the vacuum energies for a given system of conductors, but subjected to the two different conditions stated above. The results can be written in terms of a generalized, frequency-dependent capacitance matrix of the system. Using a multipolar expansion, we show that the grounded Casimir energy includes a monopole-monopole interaction term that is absent in the isolated case in the large distance limit.