Casimir effect of massive vector fields

Abstract

We study the Casimir effect due to a massive vector field in a system of two parallel plates made of real materials, in an arbitrary magnetodielectric background. The plane waves satisfying the Proca equations are classified into transverse modes and longitudinal modes which have different dispersion relations. Transverse modes are further divided into type I and type II corresponding to TE and TM modes in the massless case. For general magnetodielectric media, we argue that the correct boundary conditions are the continuities of H{sub ||}, {phi}, A, and {partial_derivative}{sub x}A{sub x}, where x is the direction normal to the plates. Although there are type I transverse modes that satisfy all the boundary conditions, it is impossible to find type II transverse modes or longitudinal modes that satisfy all the boundary conditions. To circumvent this problem, type II transverse modes and longitudinal modes have to be considered together. We call the contribution to the Casimir energy from type I transverse modes TE contribution, and the contribution from the superposition of type II transverse modes and longitudinal modes TM contribution. Their massless limits give, respectively, the TE and TM contributions to the Casimir energy of a massless vector field. The limit wheremore » the plates become perfectly conducting is discussed in detail. For the special case where the background has a unity refractive index, it is shown that the TM contribution to the Casimir energy can be written as a sum of contributions from two different types of modes, corresponding to type II discrete modes and type III continuum modes discussed by Barton and Dombey [G. Barton and N. Dombey, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 162, 231 (1985).]. For general background, this splitting does not work. The limit where both plates become infinitely permeable and the limit where one plate becomes perfectly conducting and one plate becomes infinitely permeable are also investigated.« less