2008/11/14 by L. H. Ford, N. F. Svaiter · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/161/1/012034
published as J.Phys.Conf.Ser.161: 012034,2009 · 8 pages, 1 figure, talk presented at "60 Years of Casimir Effect", Brasilia, Brazil, June 2008
arxiv created 2008/11/14 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12
We discuss the quantization of sound waves in a fluid with a linear dispersion relation and calculate the quantum density fluctuations of the fluid in several cases. These include a fluid in its ground state. In this case, we discuss the scattering cross section of light by the density fluctuations, and find that in many situations it is small compared to the thermal fluctuations, but not negligibly small and might be observable at room temperature. We also consider a fluid in a squeezed state of phonons and fluids containing boundaries. We suggest that the latter may be a useful analog model for better understanding boundary effects in quantum field theory. In all cases involving boundaries which we consider, the mean squared density fluctuations are reduced by the presence of the boundary. This implies a reduction in the light scattering cross section, which is potentially an observable effect.