Casimir energy for N superconducting cavities: a model for the YBCO (BSCCO)

TL;DR

This paper models the Casimir energy in layered superconducting cavities, focusing on N large structures to understand energy modulation during the transition from metallic to superconducting phases, relevant for gravitational interaction experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of Casimir energy in multi-layered superconducting cavities, extending previous models to large N structures for experimental applications.

Findings

Characterized Casimir energy for dielectric and plasma sheet configurations.

Analyzed energy modulation across the superconducting transition.

Provided estimates for energy change in layered YBCO/BSCCO samples.

Abstract

In this paper we study the Casimir energy of a sample made by N cavities, with N >> 1, across the transition from the metallic to the superconducting phase of the constituting plates. After having characterized the energy for the configuration in which the layers constituting the cavities are made by dielectric and for the configuration in which the layers are made by plasma sheets, we concentrate our analysis on the latter. It represents the final step towards the macroscopic characterization of a "multi cavity" (with N large) necessary to fully understand the behaviour of the Casimir energy of a YBCO (or a BSCCO) sample across the transition. Our analysis is especially useful to the Archimedes experiment, aimed at measuring the interaction of the electromagnetic vacuum energy with a gravitational field. To this purpose, we aim at modulating the Casimir energy of a layered structure, the multi cavity, by inducing a transition from the metallic to the superconducting phase. After having characterized the Casimir energy of such a structure for both the metallic and the superconducting phase, we give an estimate of the modulation of the energy across the transition.