The Dirichlet Casimir energy for ϕ4 theory in a rectangular waveguide

Abstract

In this paper, we presented the zero- and first-order radiative corrections to the Casimir energy for a massive scalar field confined with Dirichlet boundary condition in an open-ended rectangular waveguide. In the calculation procedure, we applied a systematic renormalization program that allows all influences imposed by dominant boundary conditions in a problem be automatically reflected in the counterterms, leading the counterterms to be obtained in a position-dependent manner. To remove the appeared divergences in the computation task, the box subtraction scheme as a regularization technique was used. In this regularization technique, usually, two similar configurations were introduced. Then, to find the Casimir energy, the zero-point energies of these two configurations were subtracted from each other via defining appropriate limits. In the present work, first, the leading order Casimir energy for the massive scalar field in a waveguide is briefly presented. Next, by applying the renormalization and regularization procedures, the first-order radiative correction to the Casimir energy in the waveguide is calculated. Finally, all the necessary limits of the obtained answers for massive and massless cases are computed and the consistency of the obtained results are discussed.