Casimir piston for massless scalar fields in three dimensions

Journal Article · Tue May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.75.105012· OSTI ID:20935271

Edery, Ariel ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Bishop's University, 2600 College Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1M0C8 (Canada)

We study the Casimir piston for massless scalar fields obeying Dirichlet boundary conditions in a three-dimensional cavity with sides of arbitrary lengths a, b, and c where a is the plate separation. We obtain an exact expression for the Casimir force on the piston valid for any values of the three lengths. As in the electromagnetic case with perfect-conductor conditions, we find that the Casimir force is negative (attractive) regardless of the values of a, b, and c. Though cases exist where the interior contributes a positive (repulsive) Casimir force, the total Casimir force on the piston is negative when the exterior contribution is included. We also obtain an alternative expression for the Casimir force that is useful computationally when the plate separation a is large.

• OSTI ID: 20935271
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 75; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CASIMIR EFFECT
PISTONS
SCALAR FIELDS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS