The Covariant Electromagnetic Casimir Effect for Real Conducting Cylindrical Shells

Using covariant quantization of the electromagnetic field, the Casimir force per unit area experienced by a long conducting cylindrical shell, under both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions, is calculated. The renormalization procedure is based on the plasma cut-off frequency for real conductors. The real case of a gold (silver) cylindrical shell is considered and the corresponding electromagnetic Casimir pressure is computed. It is discussed that the Dirichlet and Neumann problems should be considered separately without adding their corresponding results.