Resonant photon creation in a three-dimensional oscillating cavity

Abstract

We analyze the problem of photon creation inside a perfectly conducting, rectangular, three-dimensional cavity with one oscillating wall. For some particular values of the frequency of the oscillations the system is resonant. We solve the field equation using multiple scale analysis and show that the total number of photons inside the cavity grows exponentially in time. This is also the case for slightly off-resonance situations. Although the spectrum of a cavity is in general nonequidistant, we show that the modes of the electromagnetic field can be coupled, and that the rate of photon creation strongly depends on this coupling. We also analyze the thermal enhancement of the photon creation.