Singularities of the Casimir Energy for Quantum Field Theories with Lifshitz Dimensions

Abstract

We study the singularities that the Casimir energy of a scalar field in spacetimes with Lifshitz dimensions exhibits, and provide expressions of the energy in terms of multidimensional zeta functions for the massless case. Using the zeta-regularization method, we found that when the 4-dimensional spacetime has Lifshitz dimensions, then for specific values of the critical exponents, the Casimir energy is singular, in contrast to the non-Lifshitz case. Particularly we found that when the value of the critical exponent is $z=2$, the Casimir energy is singular, while for $z\geq 3$ the Casimir energy is regular. In addition, when flat extra dimensions are considered, the critical exponents of the Lifshitz dimensions affect drastically the Casimir energy, introducing singularities that are absent in the non-Lifshitz case. We also discuss the Casimir energy in the context of braneworld models and the perspective of Lifshitz dimensions in such framework.