Dual chiral density wave induced oscillating Casimir effect

Abstract

The Casimir effect is known to be induced from photon fields confined by a small volume, and also its fermionic counterpart has been predicted in a wide range of quantum systems. Here, we investigate what types of Casimir effects can occur from quark fields in dense and thin quark matter. In particular, in the dual chiral density wave, which is a possible ground state of dense quark matter, we find that the Casimir energy oscillates as a function of the thickness of matter. This oscillating Casimir effect is regarded as an analog of that in Weyl semimetals and is attributed to the Weyl points in the momentum space of quark fields. In addition, we show that an oscillation is also induced from the quark Fermi sea, and the total Casimir energy is composed of multiple oscillations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024