Finite-sites corrections to the Casimir energy on a periodic lattice

Abstract

We show that the vacuum ground state energy for massive scalars on a 1-dim L-sites periodic lattice can be interpreted as the thermodynamic free energy of particles at temperature 1/L governed by the Arutyunov-Frolov mirror Hamiltonian. Although the obligatory zero-point sum-over-frequencies is finite on the lattice, a renormalization prescription is necessary in order to obtain a physical sensible result for the lattice Casimir energy. The coefficients of every term in the large L expansion of the lattice Casimir energy are provided in terms of modified Bessel functions.