We consider the coupling of the electromagnetic vacuum field with an oscillating perfectlyreflecting mirror in the nonrelativistic approximation. As a consequence of the frequency modulation associated to the motion of the mirror, low frequency photons are generated. We calculate the photon emission rate by following a nonperturbative approach, in which the coupling between the field sidebands is taken into account. We show that the usual perturbation theory fails to account correctly for the contribution of TM-polarized vacuum fluctuations that propagate along directions nearly parallel to the plane surface of the mirror. As a result of the modification of the field eigenfunctions, the resonance frequency for photon emission is shifted from its unperturbed value.
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