Spatial correlations of field observables in two half-spaces separated by a movable perfect mirror

Abstract

We consider a system of two cavities separated by a reflecting boundary of finite mass that is free to move and bounded to its equilibrium position by a harmonic potential. This yields an effective mirror-field interaction, as well as an effective interaction between the field modes mediated by the movable boundary. Two massless scalar fields are defined in each cavity. We consider the second-order interacting ground state of the system, that contains virtual excitations of both mirror's degrees of freedom and of the scalar fields. We investigate the correlation functions between field observables in the two cavities and find that the squared scalar fields in the two cavities, in the interacting ground state, are anticorrelated. We discuss the dependence of the correlation on the distance of the two points considered from the mirror's average position and on its mass and oscillation angular frequency. These results show a sort of communication between the two half-spaces separated by the movable mirror, mediated by its position fluctuations. Observability of this new phenomenon exploiting two- or many-body dispersion interactions between polarizable bodies is discussed. The dependence on a cutoff frequency introduced to regularize the frequency integrations, as well as the case of a real conductor, are also discussed.