This volume is a collection of papers presented at the 6th Workshop on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions, QFEXT03. Controversies raged over the temperature dependence of the Casimir force between real metal surfaces, and over the significance of divergences encountered in calculations of Casimir energies. Such questions are being addressed through both theoretical and experimental researches, which are recounted in this book. Many other new ideas are presented, making this proceedings of great interest to both experienced researchers and graduate students concerned with both fundamental and applied issues in quantum field theory.

Students, researchers, and engineers in theoretical and experimental particle physics.

 
Steve K. Lamoreaux:
           Demonstration of the Casimir Force with a Torsion Pendulum
F. Chen, U. Mohideen, and P.W. Milonni:
           Progress in the Measurement of the Difference Thermal Contribution to the Casimir Force
Davide Iannuzzi, Ian Gelfand, Mariangela Lisanti, and Federico Capasso:
           New Challenges and Directions in Casimir Force Experiments
Roberto Onofrio:
           On Casimir Forces in a Parallel Plane Geometry
R.S. Decca, D. Lopez, H.B. Chan, E. Fischbach, G.L. Klimchitskaya, D.E. Krause, and V.M. Mostepanenko:
           Precise Measurements on the Casimir Regime
D.E. Krause, R.S. Decca, E. Fischbach, G.L. Klimchitskaya, D. Lopez, and V.M. Mostepanenko:
           Searching for New Forces and Extra Dimensions Using Casimir Force Experiments
Serge Reynaud, Astrid Lambrecht, and Cyriaque Genet:
          The Casimir Force Between Real Mirrors at Non Zero Temperature
V.M. Mostepanenko:
          Two Approaches to the Casimir Free Energy: The Fluctuating Field and the Impedance Boundary Conditions
I. Brevik, J.B. Aarseth, J.S. Hye, and K.A. Milton:
          Temperature Dependence of the Casimir Force for Metals
G.L. Klimchitskaya:
          Impedance Approach Solves the Problems with the Thermal Casimir Force Between Real Metals
Vitaly B. Svetovoy:
          Properties of Metallic Films in Precise Calculation of the Casimir Force
Bo E. Sernelius and M. Bostrom:
          Dispersion Forces Between Real Metal Plates at Finite Temperature and the Nernst Heat Theorem
R. Esquivel-Sirvent and W.L. Mochan:
          Lifshitz Formula for Nonlocal Materials
Cecilia Noguez and C.E. Roman-Velazquez:
          Casimir Force Between a Sphere and a Plane: Spectral Representation Formalism
Thorsten Emig:
          Geometry Dependence of Casimir Forces Beyond the Proximity Approximation
L.H. Ford and Vasilka Sopova:
          Casimir Forces on Small Metal Spheres Near a Dielectric Interface
I. Klich:
          Repulsive Casimir Forces
Francisco D. Mazzitelli:
          Casimir Interaction Between Cylinders
Irina Pirozhenko:
          Towards a Heat Kernel Expansion for the Electromagnetic Field Interacting with a Dielectric Body of Arbitrary Form
Vasilka Sopova and L.H. Ford:
          The Electromagnetic Field Stress Tensor Near Dielectric Half-Spaces
Klaus Kirsten and Alan J. McKane:
          Functional Determinants in the Presence of Zero Modes
M. Bordag:
          Fermionic Vacuum Energy in the Abelian-Higgs Model
Anton Rebhan, Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, and Robert Wimmer:
          The Casimir Effect for SUSY Solitons
S.A. Fulling
          Global and Local Vacuum Energy and Closed Orbit Theory
Robert L. Jaffe:
          Unnatural Acts: Unphysical Consequences of Imposing
Boundary Conditions on Quantum Fields
Markus Quandt:
          Calculating Vacuum Energies in Quantum Field Theory
H. Weigel:
          Dirichlet Spheres in Continuum Quantum Field Theory
L. Moyaerts, K. Langfeld, and H. Gies Worldline:
           Approach to the Casimir Effect
Lai-Him Chan:
          A Novel Method to Calculate Casimir Energies of Solitons and External Fields in Quantum Field Theory
Vishesh Khemani:
          Quantum Solitons in the Electroweak Theory
Kenzo Ishikawa, Takahiro Aoyama, Yumiko Ishizuka, and Nobuki Maeda:
Field Theory of Anisotropic Quantum Hall Gas
Marcus Benghi Pinto:
          Analytical Non Perturbative Evaluation of $\Delta T_C$ for Homogeneous Bose Gases
Dmitri V. Fursaev:
          Spectral Geometry of Operator Polynomials and Applications to QFT
Gerald V. Dunne and Christian Schubert:
          Self-Duality, Helicity, and Higher-Loop Euler-Heisenberg Effective Actions
A. T. Banin, I. L. Buchbinder, and N. G. Pletnev:
          Low-Energy Effective Action in Extended Supersymmetric Gauge Theories
M. P. Fry:
          Fermion Determinants 2003
B. Geyer, D. M. Gitman, and I. V. Tyutin:
          Reduction of Euler-Lagrange Equations in General Gauge Theories with External Fields
Jurgen Baacke and Stefan Michalski:
          $O(N)$ Linear Sigma Model Beyond the Hartree Approximation at Finite Temperature
D. A. Owen:
          Bound States of a Spin-1 Particle in an Electromagnetic Field
Chad R. Galley, B. L. Hu, and Philip R. Johnson:
          Moving Charges, Detectors and Mirrors in a Quantum Field with Backreaction
Norman J. Morgenstern Horing:
          External Magnetic Field Effects on van der Waals Atom-Surface Attraction
Emilio Elizalde:
          Cosmological Uses of Casimir Energy
R. P. Woodard:
          Quantum Effects During Inflation
R. Hofmann, F. Paccetti-Correia, M.G. Schmidt, and Z. Tavartkiladze:
          Supersymmetric Models for Gauge Inflation
J. W. Moffat:
          Cosmological Constant Problem
Noah Graham:
          Do Casimir Energies Obey General Relativity Energy Conditions?
Pawel O. Mazur and Emil Mottola:
          Dark Energy and Condensate Stars: Casimir Energy in the Large
Giuseppe Bimonte, Enrico Calloni, Luciano Di Fiore, Giampiero Esposito, Leopoldo Milano, and Luigi Rosa:
          Photon Green Functions in Curved Spacetime
O. B. Zaslavskii:
          Exact Solutions in Semiclassical $2D$ Dilaton Gravity Theories and Extremal Black Holes
Floyd L. Williams:
          Remarks on Harmonic Maps, Solitons, and Dilaton Gravity
M.C.B. Abdalla, A.A. Bytsenko, and M.E.X. Guimaraes:
          Entropy and Thermodynamic Limits in $M$-Theory
A.A. Bytsenko, V.S. Mendes, and A.C. Tort:
          Entropy Bounds for Forms on Vector Bundles over Compact Hyperbolic Manifolds
Demian H.J. Cho and John L. Friedman:
          Stationary Kaluza-Klein States in Minisuperspace Framework
Antonino Flachi:
          Quantum Effects in Brane World Models