Influence of boundary conditions on the radiation emitted by an accelerated source

Abstract

We analyze how the radiation emitted by an accelerated source minimally coupled to a massless real scalar field is influenced by the boundary conditions imposed on the field. We find that the response rate of the accelerated source in the presence of nearby boundaries parallel to the direction of the source's motion can be suppressed or enhanced depending on whether Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions are imposed on the field. We conclude that the response rate strongly depends on the kind of boundary conditions imposed, just as the sign of the Casimir force depends on the boundary conditions imposed on the field.