Electrons for Detection of Casimir Photons

Abstract

We propose a method for the detection of a dynamical Casimir effect. Assuming that the Casimir photons are being generated in an electromagnetic cavity with a vibrating wall (dynamical Casimir effect), we consider electrons passing through the cavity to be interacting with the intracavity field. We show that the dynamical Casimir effect can be observed via the measurement of the change in the average or in the variance of the electron kinetic energy. We point out that the enhancement of the effect due to finite temperatures makes it easier to detect the Casimir photons.