Dynamical Casimir Effect and Quantum Cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores the dynamical Casimir effect within quantum cosmology, analyzing how quantum fields influence the evolution of an expanding universe modeled by an FRW metric, using effective action methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the background field and effective action formalism to describe the dynamical Casimir effect in an expanding universe with quantum fields.

Findings

Derived analytical and numerical solutions for the universe's scale factor evolution.

Analyzed effects of different Casimir energy configurations on cosmic dynamics.

Explored alternative kinetic terms impacting the dynamical evolution.

Abstract

We apply the background field method and the effective action formalism to describe the four-dimensional dynamical Casimir effect. Our picture corresponds to the consideration of quantum cosmology for an expanding FRW universe (the boundary conditions act as a moving mirror) filled by a quantum massless GUT which is conformally invariant. We consider cases in which the static Casimir energy is repulsive and attractive. Inserting the simplest possible inertial term, we find, in the adiabatic (and semiclassical) approximation, the dynamical evolution of the scale factor and the dynamical Casimir stress analytically and numerically (for SU(2) super Yang-Mills theory). Alternative kinetic energy terms are explored in the Appendix.