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One-loop quantum corrections to the Casimir effect for smoothly rough plates in the low-temperature regime

Claudio Bórquez1,* and Byron Droguett2,†

  • *Contact author: claudio.borquez@uss.cl
  • †Contact author: byron.droguett@uantof.cl
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 025021 – Published 27 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tkzq-5b8j

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of the one-loop effective potential of a self-interacting real scalar field in the presence of two parallel conducting plates with geometric roughness. The analysis is restricted to the adiabatic regime of smoothly varying surface deformations, where derivative contributions to the surface profile can be neglected. Using Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin methods to evaluate the spectral density of the modified Laplace-Beltrami operator, together with contour integration within a ζ-function regularization scheme, we derive analytical expressions for the quantum corrections to the effective potential induced by perturbative boundary roughness and finite temperature. Furthermore, within this regime, we compute explicit contributions to the Casimir energy and to the topological mass generation associated with the geometry.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 025021– Published 27 July, 2026
  • Received 17 April 2026
  • Accepted 8 July 2026
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