Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I Basics
- 1 Preliminaries
- 2 Basics of Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Non-relativistic Quantum Fields
- 4 The Lorentz Group and the Poincaré Group
- 5 The Massive Scalar Free Field
- 6 Quantization
- 7 The Casimir Effect
- Part II Spin
- Part III Interactions
- Part IV Renormalization
- Part V Complements
- Solutions to Selected Exercises
- Reading Suggestions
- References
- Index
7 - The Casimir Effect
from PART I - Basics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2022
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I Basics
- 1 Preliminaries
- 2 Basics of Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Non-relativistic Quantum Fields
- 4 The Lorentz Group and the Poincaré Group
- 5 The Massive Scalar Free Field
- 6 Quantization
- 7 The Casimir Effect
- Part II Spin
- Part III Interactions
- Part IV Renormalization
- Part V Complements
- Solutions to Selected Exercises
- Reading Suggestions
- References
- Index
Summary
Two well-polished metallic plates very close to each other in a vacuum feel a (slight) mutual attraction. This is the experimentally verified Casimir effect, deeply linked to the fact that the ground state energy of the harmonic oscillator is positive, and to the far more intriguing fact that in a sense and infinity of such oscillators live in the vacuum. Modeling the Casimir effect we have to first confront the great plague of the theory, the occurrence of infinite quantities in the calculations. In this case, though, a simple procedure allows canceling the infinites and getting a meaningful result.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- What Is a Quantum Field Theory? , pp. 176 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022