Geometry-Temperature Interplay in the Casimir Effect

Abstract

We discuss Casimir phenomena which are dominated by long-range fluctuations. A prime example is given by "geothermal" Casimir phenomena where thermal fluctuations in open Casimir geometries can induce significantly enhanced thermal corrections. We illustrate the underlying mechanism with the aid of the inclined-plates configuration, giving rise to enhanced power-law temperature dependences compared to the parallel-plates case. In limiting cases, we find numerical evidence even for fractional power laws induced by long-range fluctuations. We demonstrate that thermal energy densities for open geometries are typically distributed over length scales of 1/T. As an important consequence, approximation methods for thermal corrections based on local energy-density estimates such as the proximity-force approximation are expected to become unreliable even at small surface separations.

15 pages, 3 figures, contribution to the IX. Conference on Quantum Field Theory under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT09), 21-25 September 2009, Oklahoma, USA

References in corpus (9)

• Casimir forces between arbitrary compact objects
• Worldline algorithms for Casimir configurations
• Thermal corrections to the Casimir effect
• Casimir edge effects
• Casimir interaction between plane and spherical metallic surfaces
• Kaluza-Klein models as pistons
• Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem and the thermal Casimir effect for conductors
• Quantum dissipative Brownian motion and the Casimir effect
• Interplay between geometry and temperature for inclined Casimir plates

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Casimir force between sharp-shaped conductors
• Non-monotonic thermal Casimir force from geometry-temperature interplay
• Geothermal Casimir phenomena for the sphere-plate and cylinder-plate configurations
• Edges and Diffractive Effects in Casimir Energies
• Diffractive Effects and General Boundary Conditions in Casimir Energy
• Thermal diffractive corrections to Casimir energies
• On the Casimir repulsion in sphere-plate geometry
• Casimir effect: Edges and diffraction
• The low temperature corrections to the Casimir force between a sphere and a plane