We consider a real massless scalar field in $3+1$ dimensions satisfying a Robin boundary condition at a nonrelativistic moving mirror. Considering vacuum as the initial field state, we compute explicitly the number of particles created per unit frequency and per unit solid angle, exhibiting in this way the angular dependence of the spectral distribution. The well-known cases of Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions may be reobtained as particular cases from our results. We show that the particle creation rate can be considerably reduced (with respect to the Dirichlet and Neumann cases) for particular values of the Robin parameter. Our results extend, for $3+1$ dimensions, previous results found in the literature for $1+1$ dimensions. Further, we also show that this inhibition of the dynamical Casimir effect occurs for different angles of particle emission.

• Received 15 December 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.045024