We have computed numerically the Casimir force between two identical pistons inside a very long cylinder, considering different shapes for the pistons. The pistons can be considered quantum billiards, whose spectrum determines the vacuum force. The smooth part of the spectrum fixes the force at short distances and depends only on geometric quantities like the area or perimeter of the piston. However, correcting terms to the force, coming from the oscillating part of the spectrum which is related to the classical dynamics of the billiard, could be qualitatively different for classically integrable or chaotic systems. We have performed a detailed numerical analysis of the corresponding Casimir force for pistons with regular and chaotic classical dynamics. For a family of stadium billiards, we have found that the correcting part of the Casimir force presents a sudden change in the transition from regular to chaotic geometries. This suggests that there could be signatures of quantum chaos in the Casimir effect.

• Received 29 July 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.052504