Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum What?s Normal About Renormalization?

Johnny Boy, that's right.

The standard interpretation is that the Casimir Effect proves that the infinite vacuum energy ? h-bar omega_r, summed over all modes r is a real physical quantity. If you move the two plates closer, then the allowed modes shift a bit, causing a decrease in the vacuum energy. The value of this decrease is finite and gives rise to the attractive Casimir force.

However, the article shows that the same effect can be derived without refering to the vacuum energy at all. This means that:

Zero Point Energy interpretation ---> Casimir Effect

but also:

No Zero Point Energy interpretation ---> Casimir Effect

So, from the fact that the Casimir effect has been experimentally confirmed you cannot say that

Casimir Effect ---> Zero Point Energy Interpretation

This last statement is what you find (suggested)in many introductory Quantum Field Theory textbooks and it is simply false.