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The Casimir force—at first, a rather unexpected consequence of quantum electrodynamics—was discovered by Hendrik Casimir in Eindhoven in 1948. It predicts that two uncharged metal plates experience an attractive force because of the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. The idea was tested experimentally in the 1950s and 1960s, but the results were not so accurate that one could make a definite conclusion regarding the existence of the effect. Evgeny Lifshitz expanded the theory in 1955 so as to deal with general dielectric media. Much experimental work was later done to test the theory’s predictions, especially with regards to the temperature dependence of the effect. The existence of the effect itself was verified beyond doubt by Sabisky and Anderson in 1973. Another quarter century had to pass before Lamoreaux and collaborators were able to confirm—or at least make plausible—the temperature dependence predicted by Lifshitz formula in combination with reasonable input data for the material’s dispersive properties. The situation is not yet clear-cut, however, there are recent experiments indicating results in disagreement with those of Lamoreaux. In this paper, a brief review is given of the status of this research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendation on the need for further research for radio-frequency dosimetry has promoted studies on the whole-body average-specific absorption rate (WBA-SAR) in various kinds of anatomical-based numerical models. For experimental validation of GHzband WBA-SARs in a real human, however, there have not so far been any published papers, despite the fact that, in 1982, Hill measured WBA-SARs at frequencies less than 40 MHz in human volunteers using a TEM-cell exposure system. In this study, we provide a measurement technique with a reverberation chamber for validating numerical dosimetry results on GHz-band WBA-SARs in living humans. We measured WBA-SARs at 1, 1.5 and 2 GHz for a 22 year old male volunteer, with a height of 173 cm and a weight of 73 kg, in the reverberation chamber, and compared the results with the finite-difference timedomain (FDTD) simulation. The reverberation chamber was excited by using a signal generator through an amplifier with an output power of 30-40 mW, which produced inside the chamber with the volunteer an average electric field strength of 5 V m-1 equivalent to an average power spectral density of 6.6 μW cm-2. The WBA-SARs were obtained from the measured S11 and S21 together with the power density. On the other hand, theWBA-SARs have been calculated using the FDTD method for an adult male model with almost the same physique as that of the volunteer exposed to the electromagnetic field in the reverberation chamber. From the comparison between the measured and the calculated WBA-SARs, we could confirm that the measured GHz-band WBA-SARs approximately agree with the FDTD calculated results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the population and decay of a qubit under the electromagnetic environment. Employing the timeconvolutionless master equation, we investigate the Markovian and non-Markovian behaviour of the corresponding perturbation expansion. The Jaynes-Cummings model on resonance is investigated. Some figures clearly show the different evolution behaviours. The reasons are interpreted in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot-wave theories provide possible solutions to the measurement problem. In such theories, quantum systems are not only described by the state vector but also by some additional variables. These additional variables, also called beables, can be particle positions, field configurations, strings, etc. In this paper we focus our attention on pilot-wave theories in which the additional variables are field configurations. The first such theory was proposed by Bohm for the free electromagnetic field. Since Bohm, similar pilot-wave theories have been proposed for other quantum fields. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview and further development of these proposals. We discuss various bosonic quantum field theories such as the Schrodinger field, the free electromagnetic field, scalar quantum electrodynamics and the Abelian Higgs model. In particular, we compare the pilot-wave theories proposed by Bohm and by Valentini for the electromagnetic field, finding that they are equivalent. We further discuss the proposals for fermionic fields by Holland and Valentini. In the case of Holland's model we indicate that further work is required in order to show that the model is capable of reproducing the standard quantum predictions. We also consider a similar model, which does not seem to reproduce the standard quantum predictions. In the case of Valentini's model we point out a problem that seems hard to overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]