Quantum Corrections to the QED Vacuum Energy

Abstract

At energies much less than the electron mass $m$ the effects of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum due to virtual electron loops can be included by extending the Maxwell Lagrangian by additional non-renormalizable terms corresponding to the Uehling and Euler-Heisenberg interactions. This effective field theory is used to calculate the properties of the QED vacuum at temperatures $T << m$. By a redefinition of the electromagnetic field, the Uehling term is shown not to contribute. The Stefan-Boltzmann energy density is thus found to be modified by a term proportional with $T^8/m^4$ in agreement with the semi-classical result of Barton. The speed of light in blackbody radiation is smaller than one. Similarly, the correction to the energy density of the vacuum between two metallic parallel plates diverges like $1/m^4z^8$ at a distance from one of the plates $z \to 0$. While the integral of the regularized energy density is thus divergent, the regularized integral is finite and corresponds to a correction to the Casimir force which varies with the separation $L$ between the plates as $1/m^4L^8$. This result is in seemingly disagreement with a previous result for the radiative correction to the Casimir force which gives a correction varying like $1/mL^5$ in a calculation using full QED.