MIR, a Feasibility Study for a Measurement of the Dynamical Casimir Effect

Even at absolute zero, the vacuum is seething with activity and behaves as a fluid in which moving objects dissipate their kinetic energy. The dynamical Casimir effect foresees that a metallic mirror put in motion in quantum vacuum gives rise to 'dissipated' energy in the form of real photons, called the Motion Induced Radiation. The final aim of this study is to present a solution to the main experimental difficulty, that is to realize the oscillating motion of the metallic wall at high frequency (10^9 ÷ 10^10 Hz). To obtain a fast moving wall we propose to switch an effective microwave mirror on and off in very short intervals of time changing the reflectivity of the semiconductor by shining pulsed laser beam on its surface. In this way a microwave mirror can be created and disappears at very high frequency, giving rise to a system equivalent to that of a fast moving metallic slab.