Casimir effect with dynamical matter on thin mirrors

C.D. FOSCO, F.C. LOMBARDO, F.D. MAZZITELLI

PHYSICS LETTERS B

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2008 vol. 669 p. 371 - 375

0370-2693

We calculate the Casimir energy for scalar and gauge fields in interaction with zero-width mirrors,including quantum effects due to the matter fields inside the mirrors. We consider models where thosefields are either scalar or fermionic, obtaining general expressions for the energy as a function of thevacuum field 1PI function. We also study, within the frame of a concrete model, the role of the dissipationinduced by those degrees of freedom, showing that, after integration of the matter fields, the effectivetheory for the electromagnetic field contains modes with complex energies. As for the case of Lifshitzformula, we show that the formal result obtained by neglecting dissipation coincides with the correctresult that comes from the quantum fluctuations of both bulk and matter fields.