Heat kernel coefficients and divergencies of the Casimir energy for the dispersive sphere

Michael Bordag and Klaus Kirsten

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Submission date: 05. Apr. 2002
Pages: 10
published in: International journal of modern physics / A, 17 (2002) 6-7, p. 813-819 
Bibtex
PACS-Numbers: 12.20.DS, 03.70.+k, 77.22.Ch
Keywords and phrases: heat kernel, casimir energy, dispersive medium
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Abstract:
The first heat kernel coefficients are calculated for a dispersive ball whose permittivity at high frequency differs from unity by inverse powers of the frequency. The corresponding divergent part of the vacuum energy of the electromagnetic field is given and ultraviolet divergencies are seen to be present. Also in a model where the number of atoms is fixed the pressure exhibits infinities. As a consequence, the ground-state energy for a dispersive dielectric ball cannot be interpreted easily.