English

How Does Casimir Energy Fall?

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Quantum Physics

Abstract

Doubt continues to linger over the reality of quantum vacuum energy. There is some question whether fluctuating fields gravitate at all, or do so anomalously. Here we show that for the simple case of parallel conducting plates, the associated Casimir energy gravitates just as required by the equivalence principle, and that therefore the inertial and gravitational masses of a system possessing Casimir energy EcE_c are both Ec/c2E_c/c^2. This simple result disproves recent claims in the literature. We clarify some pitfalls in the calculation that can lead to spurious dependences on coordinate system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0702091,
  title  = {How Does Casimir Energy Fall?},
  author = {Stephen A. Fulling and Kimball A. Milton and Prachi Parashar and August Romeo and K. V. Shajesh and Jef Wagner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0702091},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure, REVTeX. Minor revisions, including changes in references