Axion electrodynamics: Green’s functions, zero-point energy and optical activity

Abstract

Starting from the theory of Axion Electrodynamics, we work out the axionic modifications to the electromagnetic Casimir energy using the Green’s function method, both when the axion field is initially assumed purely time-dependent and when the axion field configuration is a static domain wall, so purely space-dependent. For the first case it means that the oscillating axion background is taken to resemble an axion fluid at rest in a conventional Casimir setup with two infinite parallel conducting plates, while in the second case we evaluate the radiation pressure acting on an axion domain wall. We extend previous theories in order to include finite temperatures. Various applications are discussed. (i) We review the theory of Axion Electrodynamics and particularly the energy–momentum conservation in a linear dielectric and magnetic material. We treat this last aspect by extending former results by Brevik and Chaichian (2022) and Patkos (2022). (ii) Adopting the model of the oscillating axion background we discuss the axion-induced modifications to the Casimir force between two parallel plates by using the Green’s function method. (iii) We calculate the radiation pressure acting on an axion domain wall at finite temperature T. Our results for an oscillating axion field and a domain wall are also useful for condensed matter physics, where some topological materials, “axionic topological insulators”, interact with the electromagnetic field with a Chern–Simons interaction, like the one in Axion Electrodynamics, and there are experimental systems analogous to time-dependent axion fields and domain walls as the ones showed e.g. by Jiang and Wilczek (2019) and Fukushima et al. (2019). (iv) We compare our results, where we assume time-dependent or space-dependent axion configurations, with the discussion of the optical activity of Axion Electrodynamics by Sikivie (2021) and Carrol et al. (1990). We also make comparisons with the properties of known materials, such as optically active, chiral media and the Faraday effect.