PRESSURE-FLUCTUATIONS AND THE QUANTIZATION OF ELECTRODYNAMICS WITH BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS

Canonical quantization of electrodynamics in the presence of parallel plates is studied in covariant as well as Coulomb gauges. In both cases the models of thick and thin plates are considered. The corresponding Wightman functions are given in a closed form. They depend strongly on the given geometry. Its structure is reflected by the fluctuations of the electromagnetic field strength as well as the components of the energy momentum tensor. In between the two-plate system the fluctuations in x-space depend critically on the considered space-time points. The reason is, that the correlation functions contain an infinite set of poles corresponding to events connected by n-times reflected light signals. Whereas in most cases the results are independent on the chosen models of the plates for special conditions of the measuring process the fluctuations of the Casimir pressure depend on them. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.