Journal of High Energy Physics (Oct 2020)

Modular invariance in finite temperature Casimir effect

  • Francesco Alessio,
  • Glenn Barnich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP10(2020)134
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2020, no. 10
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract The temperature inversion symmetry of the partition function of the electromagnetic field in the set-up of the Casimir effect is extended to full modular transformations by turning on a purely imaginary chemical potential for adapted spin angular momentum. The extended partition function is expressed in terms of a real analytic Eisenstein series. These results become transparent after explicitly showing equivalence of the partition functions for Maxwell’s theory between perfectly conducting parallel plates and for a massless scalar with periodic boundary conditions.

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