Finite temperature Casimir effect for massless Majorana fermions in a magnetic field

Abstract

The zeta function regularization technique is used to study the finite temperature Casimir effect for a massless Majorana fermion field confined between parallel plates and satisfying bag boundary conditions. A magnetic field perpendicular to the plates is included. An expression for the zeta function is obtained, which is exact to all orders in the magnetic field strength, temperature and plate distance. The zeta function is used to calculate the Helmholtz free energy of the Majorana field and the pressure on the plates, in the case of weak magnetic field and strong magnetic field. In both cases, simple analytic expressions are obtained for the free energy and pressure which are very accurate and valid for all values of the temperature and plate distance.