Spherical Casimir effect for a massive scalar field on the three dimensional ball

Abstract

The zeta function regularization technique is used to study the Casimir effect for a scalar field of mass $m$ satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions on a spherical surface of radius $a$. In the case of large scalar mass, $ma\gg1$, simple analytic expressions are obtained for the zeta function and Casimir energy of the scalar field when it is confined inside the spherical surface, and when it is confined outside the spherical surface. In both cases the Casimir energy is exact up to order $a^{-2}m^{-1}$ and contains the expected divergencies, which can be eliminated using the well established renormalization procedure for the spherical Casimir effect. The case of a scalar field present in both the interior and exterior region is also examined and, for $ma\gg 1$, the zeta function, the Casimir energy, and the Casimir force are obtained. The obtained Casimir energy and force are exact up to order $a^{-2}m^{-1}$ and $a^{-3}m^{-1}$ respectively. In this scenario both energy and force are finite and do not need to be renormalized, and the force is found to produce an outward pressure on the spherical surface.