Surface vacuum energy and stresses on a plate uniformly accelerated through the Fulling–Rindler vacuum

Abstract

The vacuum expectation value of the surface energy–momentum tensor is evaluated for a massless scalar field obeying a mixed boundary condition on an infinite plate moving by uniform proper acceleration through the Fulling–Rindler vacuum. The generalized zeta function technique is used, in combination with the contour integral representation. The surface energies for separate regions on the left and on the right of the plate contain pole and finite contributions. Analytic expressions for both these contributions are derived. For a minimally coupled scalar, the surface energy–momentum tensor induced by vacuum quantum effects corresponds to a source of the cosmological constant type located on the plate and with the cosmological constant determined by the proper acceleration of the plate.