Derivation of the Blackbody Radiation Spectrum from a Natural Maximum-Entropy Principle Involving Casimir Energies and Zero-Point Radiation

Abstract

By numerical calculation, the Planck spectrum with zero-point radiation is shown to satisfy a natural maximum-entropy principle whereas alternative choices of spectra do not. Specifically, if we consider a set of conducting-walled boxes, each with a partition placed at a different location in the box, so that across the collection of boxes the partitions are uniformly spaced across the volume, then the Planck spectrum correspond to that spectrum of random radiation (having constant energy kT per normal mode at low frequencies and zero-point energy (1/2)hw per normal mode at high frequencies) which gives maximum uniformity across the collection of boxes for the radiation energy per box. The analysis involves Casimir energies and zero-point radiation which do not usually appear in thermodynamic analyses. For simplicity, the analysis is presented for waves in one space dimension.

11 pages

References in corpus (2)

• Measurement of the Casimir force between parallel metallic surfaces
• Casimir Forces and Boundary Conditions in One Dimension: Attraction, Repulsion, Planck Spectrum, and Entropy

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Casimir Forces and Boundary Conditions in One Dimension: Attraction, Repulsion, Planck Spectrum, and Entropy
• Blackbody Radiation and the Scaling Symmetry of Relativistic Classical Electron Theory with Classical Electromagnetic Zero-Point Radiation
• Fluctuation-induced forces between rings threaded around a polymer chain under tension
• Extraction of Zero-Point Energy from the Vacuum: Assessment of Stochastic Electrodynamics-Based Approach as Compared to Other Methods
• Connecting Blackbody Radiation, Relativity, and Discrete Charge in Classical Electrodynamics
• Blackbody Radiation, Conformal Symmetry, and the Mismatch Between Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism
• The equilibrium classical scatter spectrum of waves