Distinguishing models of surface response through the self-energy of an electron
arXiv:1610.01416 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.98.022515
Abstract
The self-energy of an electron confined between parallel surfaces with arbitrary dielectric properties is calculated. The mechanism for this effect is the surface-induced modification of the fluctuating quantised vacuum field to which the electron is coupled, thereby endowing it with a surface-dependent self-energy in broad analogy to the Casimir-Polder effect for an atom. We derive a general formula for this self-energy shift and find that its sign is different for two commonly-used models of surface response, namely the plasma model and the Drude model. We propose an experiment which could detect this difference in sign, shedding light on continuing uncertainty about the correct description of the interaction of low-frequency vacuum photons with media.
Comments welcome
References in corpus (13)
- Electron beam nanosculpting of suspended graphene sheets
- Influence of random roughness on the Casimir force at small separations
- Anomalies in electrostatic calibrations for the measurement of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry
- Isoelectronic determination of the thermal Casimir force
- Thermal corrections to the Casimir effect
- Comment on "Anomalies in electrostatic calibration for the measurement of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry"
- Plasma vs Drude modelling of the Casimir force: beyond the proximity force approximation
- Reply to "Comment on 'Anomalies in electrostatic calibrations for the measurement of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry'"
- Derivation of the Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between metallic plane mirrors
- Quantum electrodynamics of a free particle near dispersive dielectric or conducting boundaries
- Comment on "Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between magnetic metallic mirrors"
- Casimir-Polder force fluctuations as spatial probes of dissipation in metals
- Reply to the Comment on "The Lifshitz-Matsubara sum formula for the Casimir pressure between magnetic metallic mirrors"