K. Scharnhorst: On propagation of light in the vacuum between plates. Physics Letters B 236(1990)354-359 (DOI: 10.1016/0370-2693(90)90997-K). [SPIRES record]

Abstract: QED is considered in the presence of two parallel plates (Casimir effect type configuration) imposing boundary conditions on the photon vacuum fluctuations. Two-loop corrections arising from the boundary conditions for the photon vacuum fluctuations to the QED effective action are calculated in a physically reasonable approximation. From this effective action we find that for light propagating perpendicular to the plates in the vacuum between them, their impact phrased in the simplest terms consists in causing a change in the velocity of light.

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• Misprints, errata, addenda (PDF / Postscript):
  • P. 357, eqs. (17), (18), for details see this sheet: PDF / Postscript.
  • P. 357, second line below of eq. (19): 'This gives use' should read correctly 'This gives us'

  • P. 358, eq. (26) should read correctly: Δc/c ~ 1.6 × 10^-56 a^-4. Correspondingly, on p. 359, second line from top: 'Δc/c ~ 1.6 × 10^-36' should read correctly 'Δc/c ~ 1.6 × 10^-32'.

    Cf.:

    G. Barton: Faster-than-c light between parallel mirrors. The Scharnhorst effect rederived. Physics Letters B 237(1990)559-562 (DOI: 10.1016/0370-2693(90)91224-Y), p. 561, eq. (9b). R.L. Forward: Mass modification experiment study (an Air Force report). Journal of Scientific Exploration 10(1996)325-354 (Available at the journal site: http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_10_3_forward.pdf), p. 354, lines 2 and 3 from top.

  • Ref. [2] should read correctly: I.I. Abrikosova and B.V. Deryagin, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 31 (1956) 3.
  • In ref. [4], the volume number should read correctly: 170.

© K. Scharnhorst . Document last modified: February 23, 2010