Casimir effect in the scattering approach: correlations between material properties, temperature and geometry

TL;DR

This paper uses the scattering approach to analyze the Casimir effect, revealing complex interactions between material properties, temperature, and geometry in real-world mirror configurations.

Contribution

It extends the scattering approach to non-specular cases and applies it to realistic geometries like corrugated plates and plane-sphere setups.

Findings

Correlations between material, temperature, and geometry are significant in Casimir interactions.

The scattering approach effectively models complex geometries and material properties.

Results provide insights for experimental measurements of Casimir forces.

Abstract

We present calculations of the quantum and thermal Casimir interaction between real mirrors in electromagnetic fields using the scattering approach. We begin with a pedagogical introduction of this approach in simple cases where the scattering is specular. We then discuss the more general case of stationary arbitrarily shaped mirrors and present in particular applications to two geometries of interest for experiments, that is corrugated plates and the plane-sphere geometry. The results nicely illustrate the rich correlations existing between material properties, temperature and geometry in the Casimir effect.