Dynamical Casimir eect in a Kerr Cavity

We study the dynamical Casimir eect in an electromagnetic cavity containing a Kerr medium. We obtain approximate expressions for the time evolution operator as well as for the number operator in the Heisenberg representation. We have found that the generation of photons from quantum vacuum is strongly aected by the presence of the Kerr medium, sharing physical features with the case of two two-level atoms in a cavity with oscillating walls. The nonlinear medium produces a saturation eect in the photon generation which shows strong oscillations whose frequency increases with the intensity of the nonlinear medium. We expect that these results could be relevant for any experimental study involving the dynamical Casimir eect that is willing to incorporate Kerr nonlinearities.