Quantum open systems approach to the dynamical Casimir effect

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamical Casimir effect in an electromagnetic cavity with a semiconducting shell, incorporating dissipation and noise to better understand photon creation under realistic conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a dissipative open systems framework with nonlocal damping and colored noise to analyze the dynamical Casimir effect in a toy cavity model.

Findings

Dissipation significantly affects photon production.

Nonlocal damping and colored noise are essential for accurate modeling.

The approach provides insights into realistic experimental setups.

Abstract

We analyze the introduction of dissipative effects in the study of the dynamical Casimir effect. We consider a toy model for an electromagnetic cavity that contains a semiconducting thin shell, which is irradiated with short laser pulses in order to produce periodic oscillations of its conductivity. The coupling between the quantum field in the cavity and the microscopic degrees of freedom of the shell induces dissipation and noise in the dynamics of the field. We argue that the photon creation process should be described in terms of a damped oscillator with nonlocal dissipation and colored noise.