Casimir force on a light front

Abstract

Depending on the point of view, the Casimir force arises from variation in the energy of the quantum vacuum as boundary conditions are altered or as an interaction between atoms in the materials that form these boundary conditions. Standard analyses of such configurations are usually done in terms of ordinary, equal-time (Minkowski) coordinates. However, physics is independent of the coordinate choice, and an analysis based on light-front coordinates, where x+≡t+z∕c plays the role of time, is equally valid. After a brief historical introduction, we illustrate and compare equal-time and light-front calculations of the Casimir force.