Casimir Effects: an Optical Approach II. Local Observables and Thermal Corrections

A. Scardicchio, R. L. Jaffe

Published 2005-07-04Version 1

We recently proposed a new approach to the Casimir effect based on classical ray optics (the "optical approximation"). In this paper we show how to use it to calculate the local observables of the field theory. In particular we study the energy-momentum tensor and the Casimir pressure. We work three examples in detail: parallel plates, the Casimir pendulum and a sphere opposite a plate. We also show how to calculate thermal corrections, proving that the high temperature `classical limit' is indeed valid for any smooth geometry.