1303.3790 (Gerold Gruendler)

What the Casimir-Effect really is telling about Zero-Point Energy    [PDF]

Gerold Gruendler

The attractive force between metallic surfaces, predicted by Casimir in 1948, seems to indicate the physical existence and measurability of the quantized electromagnetic field's zero-point energy. It is shown in this article, that Casimir's derivation depends essentially on a misleading idealization. When that idealization is replaced by a realistic assumption, Casimir's argument turns to the exact opposite: The observed Casimir force does positively prove, that the electromagnetic field's zero-point energy does not exert forces onto metallic surfaces.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.3790