On non-equilibrium photon distributions in the Casimir effect

Abstract

The electromagnetic field in a typical geometry of the Casimir effect is described in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. The main result is the photon distribution function (Keldysh Green function) in any stationary state of the field. A two-plate geometry with a sliding interface in local equilibrium is studied in detail, and full agreement with the results of Rytov fluctuation electrodynamics is found. As an illustration, plots are shown for a spectrum of the energy density between the plates.

16 pages, 4 figures, added Appendix

References in corpus (4)

• Broadband super-Planckian thermal emission from hyperbolic metamaterials
• No quantum friction between uniformly moving plates
• Van der Waals interaction of excited media
• On non-equilibrium photon distributions in the Casimir effect

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Nonequilibrium quantum fluctuations of a dispersive medium: Spontaneous emission, photon statistics, entropy generation, and stochastic motion
• Friction and Radiative Heat Exchange in a System of Two Parallel Plates Moving Sideways : Levin-Polevoy-Rytov Theory Revisited
• On non-equilibrium photon distributions in the Casimir effect
• Green function solution of generalised boundary value problems