arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C. Farina.
We show how the induction law is correctly used in the path integral computation of the free particle propagator. The way this primary path integral example is treated in most textbooks is a little bit missleading.
This paper is devoted to the study of the influence of two parallel plates on the atomic levels of a Hydrogen atom placed in the region between the plates. We treat two situations, namely: the case where both plates are infinitely permeable and the case where one of them is a perfectly conducting plate and the other, an infinitely permeable one. We compare our result with those found in literature for two parallel conducting plates. The limiting cases where the atom is near a conducting plate and near a permeable one are also taken.
We discuss how the propagation of electromagnetic fields described by a general two-parameter lagrangian, which contains the Euler-Heisenberg effective lagrangian and the Born-Infeld lagrangian as particular cases, is affected by a pair of parallel plates that impose boundary conditions in the quantized field. We consider three differents setups, namely: (i) two perfectly conducting plates; (ii) two infinitely permeable plates and (iii) a pair of plates in which one of them is a perfect conductor and the other has an infinite magnetic permeability.
In a recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 220801 (2003)], V. Mkrtchian and co-workers calculated the radiation pressure force on a moving body, assuming the electromagnetic field to be at temperature $T,$ and the velocity to be much smaller than $c.$ They considered both dielectrics and conductors, and related the effect to Casimir dissipative forces. Here we claim that their approach may only apply in the Rayleigh-Ganz scattering regime, which corresponds to very small particles and/or electromagnetically rarefied media. Moreover, we argue that their interpretation in terms of the Casimir effect is misleading, since vacuum fluctuations do not contribute in the (implicitly assumed) regime of uniform motion.
We compute the first radiative correction to the Casimir energy in the $(d+1)$-dimensional $λ|ϕ|^{4}$ model submitted to quasi-periodic boundary conditions in one spatial direction. Our results agree with the ones found in the literature for periodic and anti-periodic boundary conditions, special cases of the quasi-periodic boundary conditions.
In 2003.5 Eta Carinae was expected to undergo an X-ray eclipse (Damineli et al., 2000). In the framework of an international campaign to obtain multi-wavelength observations of this event, we have obtained optical CCD images of Eta Carinae. Here, we present the B, V, R, I, data of Eta Car obtained before and during the X-ray eclipse.
We derive the radiation pressure force on a non-relativistic moving plate in 1+1 dimensions. We assume that a massless scalar field satisfies either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions (BC) at the instantaneous position of the plate. We show that when the state of the field is invariant under time translations, the results derived for Dirichlet and Neumann BC are equal. We discuss the force for a thermal field state as an example for this case. On the other hand, a coherent state introduces a phase reference, and the two types of BC lead to different results.
We compute the first radiative correction to the Casimir energy of a massive scalar field with a quartic self-interaction in the presence of two parallel plates. Three kinds of boundary conditions are considered: Dirichlet-Dirichlet, Neumann-Neumann and Dirichlet-Neumann. We use dimensional and analytical regularizations to obtain our physical results.
We consider the quantization of a scalar kappa-deformed field up to the point of obtaining an expression for its vacuum energy. The expression is given by the half sum of the field frequencies, as in the non-deformed case, but with the frequencies obeying the kappa-deformed dispersion relation. We consider a set of kappa-deformed Maxwell equations and show that for the purpose of calculating the Casimir energy the Maxwell field, as in the non-deformed case, behaves as a pair of scalar fields. Those results provide a foundation for computing the Casimir energy starting from the the half sum of field frequencies. A method of calculation starting from this expression is briefly described.
In a quantum field with spacetime invariance governed by the Poincare algebra the one-loop effective action is equal to the sum of zero modes frequencies, which is the vacuum energy of the field. The first Casimir invariant of the Poincare algebra provides the proper time Hamiltonian in Schwinger's proper time representation of the effective action. We consider here a massive neutral scalar field with spacetime invariance governed by the so called kappa-deformed Poincare algebra. We show here that if in the kappa-deformed theory the first Casimir invariant of the algebra is also used as the proper-time hamiltonian the effective action appears with a real and an imaginary part. The real part is equal to half the sum of kappa-deformed zero mode frequencies, which gives the vacuum energy of the kappa-deformed field. In the limit in which the deformation disappears this real part reduces to half of the sum of zero mode frequencies of the usual scalar field. The imaginary part is proportional to the sum of the squares of the kappa-deformed zero mode frequencies. This part is a creation rate of field excitations in the situations in which it gives rise to a finite physically meaningful quantity. This is the case when the field is submitted to boundary conditions and properly renormalized, as we show in a related paper.
In a related paper we have obtained that the effective action for a kappa-deformed quantum field theory has a real and an imaginary part. The real part is half the sum of the kappa-deformed zero mode frequencies, while the imaginary part is proportional to the sum of the squares of the zero mode frequencies, being proportional to the inverse of kappa. Here we calculate this imaginary part for the kappa-deformed electromagnetic field confined between two perfectly conducting parallel plates. After renormalization this imaginary part gives a creation rate of kappa-deformed electromagnetic radiation. This creation rate goes to zero at the appropriate limits, namely: when the deformation disappears or at infinite separation of the plates. The result agrees with previously obtained results and shed light on them by exhibiting the creation rate as originated in a sum of zero modes. Let us note that due to the rather complicated kappa-deformed electromagnetic dispersion relation we were led to the theorem of the argument in order to sum the squares of the kappa-deformed frequencies.
We present three methods for calculating the Feynman propagator for the non-relativistic harmonic oscillator. The first method was employed by Schwinger a half a century ago, but has rarely been used in non-relativistic problems since. Also discussed is an algebraic method and a path integral method so that the reader can compare the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
We compute the $O(λ)$ correction to the Casimir energy for the massive $λϕ^4$ model confined between a pair of parallel plates. The calculations are made with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. The correction is shown to be sensitive to the boundary conditions, except in the zero mass limit, in which case our results agree with those found in the literature.
We show that in order to account for the repulsive Casimir effect in the parallel plate geometry in terms of the quantum version of the Lorentz force, virtual surface densities of magnetic charges and currents must be introduced. The quantum version of the Lorentz force expressed in terms of the correlators of the electric and magnetic fields for planar geometries yields then correctly the Casimir pressure.
We compute the radiation pressure force on a moving mirror, in the nonrelativistic approximation, assuming the field to be at temperature $T.$ At high temperature, the force has a dissipative component proportional to the mirror velocity, which results from Doppler shift of the reflected thermal photons. In the case of a scalar field, the force has also a dispersive component associated to a mass correction. In the electromagnetic case, the separate contributions to the mass correction from the two polarizations cancel. We also derive explicit results in the low temperature regime, and present numerical results for the general case. As an application, we compute the dissipation and decoherence rates for a mirror in a harmonic potential well.
We investigate the Casimir effect at finite temperature for a charged scalar field in the presence of an external uniform and constant magnetic field, perpendicular to the Casimir plates. We have used a boundary condition characterized by a deformation parameter $θ$; for $θ=0$ we have a periodic condition and for $θ=π$, an antiperiodic one, for intermediate values, we have a deformation. The temperature was introduced using the imaginary time formalism and both the lagrangian and free energy were obtained from Schwinger proper time method for computing the effective action. We also computed the permeability and its asymptotic expressions for low and high temperatures.
We evaluate the quantum correlators associated with the Maxwell field vacuum distorted by the presence of plane parallel material surfaces. Regularization is performed through the generalized zeta funtion technique. Results are applied to a local analysis of the atractive and repulsive Casimir effect through Maxwell stress tensor. Surface divergences are shown to cancel out when stresses on both sides of the material surface are taken into account. Since an atom can be considered as a probe of the local distortion of the quantum vacuum, Casimir-Polder interactions between atoms and material surfaces are also considered.
We show that Bose-Einstein condensation of charged scalar fields interacting with a topological gauge field at finite temperature is inhibited except for special values of the topological field. We also show that fermions interacting with this topological gauge field can condense for some values of the gauge field.