On the Casimir effect with mixed dynamical edge mode and perfect electromagnetic conducting boundary conditions

Abstract

We study the Casimir effect for a parallel plate setup with one plate with dynamical edge mode (DEM) boundary conditions, and one plate with perfect electromagnetic conductor (PEMC) boundary conditions. In order to restore BRST invariance, new edge fields are introduced on the DEM plate. We then lift the boundary conditions into the action using Lagrange multiplier fields, and integrate out the bulk fields to obtain a non-local effective boundary theory from which we compute the Casimir energy. The resulting Casimir force is identical to a PMC-PEMC setup, implying that, from the point of view of the Casimir effect, a DEM plate is equivalent to a PMC plate. We also include a detailed derivation of the general functional method used to compute the Casimir energy from the partition function.