Casimir effect for parallel plates in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe

We evaluate the Hadamard function, the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor for a massive scalar field with a general curvature coupling parameter in the geometry of two parallel plates on a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background with a general scale factor. On the plates, the field operator obeys the Robin boundary conditions with the coefficients depending on the scale factor. In all the spatial regions, the VEVs are decomposed into the boundary-free and boundary-induced contributions. Unlike the problem with the Minkowski bulk, in the region between the plates, the normal stress is not homogeneous and does not vanish in the geometry of a single plate. Near the plates, it has different signs for accelerated and decelerated expansions of the Universe. The VEV of the energy-momentum tensor, in addition to the diagonal components, has a nonzero off-diagonal component describing an energy flux along the direction normal to the boundaries. Expressions are derived for the Casimir forces acting on the plates. Depending on the Robin coefficients and on the vacuum state, these forces can be either attractive or repulsive. An important difference from the corresponding result in the Minkowski bulk is that the forces on the separate plates, in general, are different if the corresponding Robin coefficients differ. We give the applications of general results for the class of $\alpha$ vacua in the de Sitter bulk. It is shown that, compared with the Bunch-Davies vacuum state, the Casimir forces for a given $\alpha$ vacuum may change the sign.