Casimir effect with one large extra dimension

In this work I study the Casimir effect of a massive complex scalar field in the presence of one large compactified extra dimension. I investigate the case of a scalar field confined between two parallel plates in the macroscopic three dimensions, and examine the cases of Dirichlet and mixed (Dirichlet-Neumann) boundary conditions on the plates. The case of Neumann boundary conditions is uninteresting, since it yields the same result as the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions. The scalar field also permeates a fourth compactified dimension of a size that could be comparable to the distance between the plates. This investigation is carried out using the $\zeta$-function regularization technique that allows me to obtain exact expressions for the Casimir energy and pressure. I discover that, when the compactified length of the extra dimension is similar to the plate distance, or slightly larger, the Casimir energy and pressure become significantly different than their standard three dimensional values, for either Dirichlet or mixed boundary conditions. Therefore, the Casimir effect of a quantum field that permeates a compactified fourth dimension, could be used as an effective tool to explore the existence of large compactified extra dimensions.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figur