Casimir effect for moving bodies

Abstract

The usual presentation of the Casimir effect refers to the presence of forces between uncharged macroscopic bodies due to the vacuum fluctuations. If the macroscopic bodies are put in relative motion, the boundary conditions are continuously changed and this should lead to an emission of quanta out of the vacuum. The rate of emission is estimated in the simplest possible geometrical and kinematical situations; the effect is found to be easily calculable but very small because the macroscopic bodies are always extremely slow with respect to the speed of light. It is, however, possible that a resonant effect might enhance the process.