We consider the electromagnetic vacuum field inside a perfect plane cavity with moving mirrors, in the nonrelativistic approximation. We show that low-frequency photons are generated in pairs that satisfy simple properties associated to the plane geometry. We calculate the photon generation rates for each polarization as functions of the mechanical frequency by two independent methods: on one hand from the analysis of the boundary conditions for moving mirrors and with the aid of Green functions; and on the other hand by an effective Hamiltonian approach. The angular and frequency spectra are discrete, and emission rates for each allowed angular direction are obtained. We discuss the dependence of the generation rates on the cavity length and show that the effect is enhanced for short cavity lengths. We also compute the dissipative force on the moving mirrors and show that it is related to the total radiated energy as predicted by energy conservation.

• Received 10 June 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.57.1379