Thermal Casimir effect for the scalar field in flat spacetime under a helix boundary condition

TL;DR

This paper derives analytical expressions for the thermal Casimir effect of a scalar field with helix boundary conditions in flat spacetime, analyzing temperature corrections, thermodynamics, and the equation of state.

Contribution

It provides the first closed-form analytical solutions for the thermal Casimir energy, free energy, and thermodynamic quantities for a scalar field with helix boundary conditions.

Findings

Temperature correction terms require finite renormalization.

Entropy density vanishes at zero temperature, satisfying the third law.

Pressure obeys an equation of state.

Abstract

In this work we consider the generalized zeta function method to obtain temperature corrections to the vacuum (Casimir) energy density, at zero temperature, associated with quantum vacuum fluctuations of a scalar field subjected to a helix boundary condition and whose modes propagate in (3+1)-dimensional Euclidean spacetime. We find closed and analytical expressions for both the two-point heat kernel function and free energy density in the massive and massless scalar field cases. In particular, for the massless scalar field case, we also calculate the thermodynamics quantities internal energy density and entropy density, with their corresponding high- and low-temperature limits. We show that the temperature correction term in the free energy density must suffer a finite renormalization, by subtracting the scalar thermal blackbody radiation contribution, in order to provide the correct classical limit at high temperatures. We check that, at low temperature, the entropy density vanishes as the temperature goes to zero, in accordance with the third law of thermodynamics. We also point out that, at low temperatures, the dominant term in the free energy and internal energy densities is the vacuum energy density at zero temperature. Finally, we also show that the pressure obeys an equation of state.