Abstract
The concept of vacuum energy has found important applications in several fields of physics since its discovery in 1948 by H.B.G. Casimir [1]. A typical situation is encountered in cosmology when quantizing matter fields in classical gravitational background. The presence of the gravitational background results in a non-trivial vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum-tensor (EMT) which, in turn, acts as a source of gravitational field [2, 3]. As implied by this example, the EMT is one of the fundamental quantities when describing quantum fields in interaction with an external system.
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References
H.B.G. Casimir, Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetenschap B 51 (1948) 793
H.B.G. Casimir, Physica 19 (1953) 846
N.D. Birrell & P.C.W.Davies, Quantum Fields in Curved Space. Cambridge Univ. Press. (1982)
A.A. Grib, S.G. Mamayev & V.M. Mostepanenko, Vacuum Quantum Effects in Strong Fields, Friedmann Lab. Publ. (1994)
J. Lindig, Diploma Thesis ”The Calculation of the Ground State Energy Density in Finite External Potentials” (in German), University of Leipzig, 1995
M. Bordag, J. Phys. A 28, (1995) 755
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© 1996 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
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Lindig, J., Bordag, M. (1996). Ground State Energy Density in Smooth Background Fields. In: Bordag, M. (eds) Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions. TEUBNER-TEXTE zur Physik, vol 30. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-01204-7_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-01204-7_33
Publisher Name: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden
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