Sign Flip in the Casimir Force for Interacting Fermion Systems

Abstract: In this work we consider a fermionic chain of finite length $\ell$. Fermions are allowed to interact and are forced to obey boundary conditions, thus altering the process of condensation. Our goal is to explore how this affects the quantum vacuum energy for this system. We approach this problem by using a self-consistent method and observe a nontrivial behavior in the Casimir force, displaying a switch from an attractive to a repulsive regime. This flip stems from the competition between the attractive contribution from the usual fermionic Casimir effect and a repulsive one coming from the condensate.