Date of Award
2005
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.Sc.
Department
Physics
Keywords
Physics, General.
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to understand the quantum vacuum in curved space-time by comparing the phenomenon of Hawking radiation with the Casimir effect. I begin with an exposition on the semiclassical approximation, as yet our best framework for understanding the curved vacuum, with additional preliminaries regarding the nature of particles and vacua in general. I discuss the Schwarzschild black hole, and derive the Hawking particle flux. Hawking radiation is viewed as a kinematical effect, which I compare to the case of mirrors moving in flat space-time. I move on to the Casimir effect: I discuss the classic case for parallel plates, and then present subtleties required for adapting it to the black hole scenario. In the final section, I compare the two phenomena and give a physical picture of the radiating black hole that clearly connects the two.Dept. of Physics. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .R66. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, page: 1383. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005.
Recommended Citation
Rooney, Darragh, "On Hawking radiation and the Casimir effect." (2005). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2918.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/2918