Casimir Self-Entropy of a Spherical Electromagnetic $\delta$-Function Shell

TL;DR

This paper calculates the Casimir self-entropy of a spherical electromagnetic delta-function shell, revealing temperature-dependent behaviors and the influence of coupling strength on entropy positivity.

Contribution

It extends previous work by analyzing a semitransparent sphere with arbitrary susceptibility and incorporating dispersion, providing new insights into entropy behavior at different coupling strengths.

Findings

TE self-entropy is negative as expected.

TM self-entropy requires subtractions and is positive only at strong coupling.

Results are consistent across different regularization schemes.

Abstract

In this paper we continue our program of computing Casimir self-entropies of idealized electrical bodies. Here we consider an electromagnetic $\delta$-function sphere ("semitransparent sphere") whose electric susceptibility has a transverse polarization with arbitrary strength. Dispersion is incorporated by a plasma-like model. In the strong coupling limit, a perfectly conducting spherical shell is realized. We compute the entropy for both low and high temperatures. The TE self-entropy is negative as expected, but the TM self-entropy requires ultraviolet and infrared subtractions, and, surprisingly, is only positive for sufficiently strong coupling. Results are robust under different regularization schemes.