Casimir effect from a scattering approach

The Casimir force is a spectacular consequence of the existence of vacuum fluctuations and thus deserves a place in courses on quantum theory. We argue that the scattering approach within a one-dimensional field theory is well suited to a discussion of the Casimir effect. It avoids in a transparent...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of physics 2015-02, Vol.83 (2), p.156-162
Main Authors: Ingold, Gert-Ludwig, Lambrecht, Astrid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dimensional analysis
Mathematical problems
Quantum field theory
Quantum theory
Scattering
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Casimir force is a spectacular consequence of the existence of vacuum fluctuations and thus deserves a place in courses on quantum theory. We argue that the scattering approach within a one-dimensional field theory is well suited to a discussion of the Casimir effect. It avoids in a transparent way divergences appearing in the evaluation of the vacuum energy. Furthermore, the scattering approach connects in a natural manner to the standard discussion of one-dimensional scattering problems in a quantum theory course. Finally, it allows for the introduction to students of the methods employed in the current research literature to determine the Casimir force in real-world systems.
ISSN:0002-9505
1943-2909
DOI:10.1119/1.4896197