Quantum electrodynamics of spinless particles between conducting plates

Abstract

The energy of any system containing charged particles arises partly from its coupling to the quantized electromagnetic field; it changes on inserting the system between conducting plates, because these alter the normal modes of the field relative to free space. We calculate to order e 2 such energy shifts for a free electron and for a hydrogen atom, neglecting spin, but allowing in full for electrostatic and retardation corrections as well as for changes in the Lamb shift proper. The potential between a particle and a single plate follows as a limiting case. An appendix details the distinction between classical and quantum effects.