Vacuum and thermal energies for two oscillators interacting through a field
Seminars
Seminar “MODERN MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS”
Date and Time: Tuesday, 15 August 2017, at 2:30 PM
Venue: Blokhintsev Hall (4th floor), Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics
Seminar topic: «Vacuum and thermal energies for two oscillators interacting through a field»
Speaker: M. Bordag (Leipzig Univ., Germany)
Abstract:
We consider a simple (1+1)-dimensional model for the Casimir-Polder interaction consisting of two oscillators coupled to a scalar field. We include dissipation in a first principles approach by allowing the oscillators to interact with heat baths. For this system, we derive an expression for the free energy in terms of real frequencies. From this representation, we derive the Matsubara representation for the case with dissipation. Further, we consider the case of vanishing intrinsic frequencies of the oscillators. We show that, in this case, the contribution from the zeroth Matsubara frequency gets modified and no problem with the laws of thermodynamics appears.