Thermodynamics of a quantized electromagnetic field in rectangular cavities with perfectly conducting walls

Abstract

The thermodynamical properties of a quantized electromagnetic field inside a box with perfectly conducting walls are studied using a regularization scheme that permits to obtain finite expressions for the thermodynamic potentials. The source of ultraviolet divergences is directly isolated in the expression for the density of modes, and the logarithmic infrared divergences are regularized imposing the uniqueness of vacuum and, consequently, the vanishing of the entropy in the limit of zero temperature. We thus obtain corrections to the Casimir energy and pressures, and to the specific heat that are due to temperature effects; these results suggest effects that could be tested experimentally.