Vacuum fluctuations and generalized boundary conditions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the effects of generalized Robin boundary conditions on the static and dynamical Casimir phenomena in quantum field theory, with implications for quantum circuits and real scalar fields in 1+1 dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a study of Casimir effects under generalized boundary conditions relevant to quantum circuits and analyzes their impact on scalar fields in 1+1 dimensions.

Findings

Generalized Robin boundary conditions influence Casimir forces.

The study connects boundary conditions to measurable dynamical Casimir effects.

Mechanical analogues help illustrate the quantum phenomena.

Abstract

We present a study of the static and dynamical Casimir effects for a quantum field theory satisfying generalized Robin boundary condition, of a kind that arises naturally within the context of quantum circuits. Since those conditions may also be relevant to measurements of the dynamical Casimir effect, we evaluate their role in the concrete example of a real scalar field in 1+1 dimensions, a system which has a well-known mechanical analogue involving a loaded string.