From the CalPhysics site... (paraphrased and annotated to make a point)
A major discovery in astrophysics in the late 1990s was the finding from supernovae redshift-luminosity observations that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. This led to the concept of dark energy, which has been labeled as a resurrection of Einstein's cosmological constant. The universe now appears to consist of about 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter and five percent ordinary matter.
Zero-point energy can be defined as having the apparent desired property of driving an accelerated expansion, and thus having the requisite properties of dark energy, but to an absurdly greater degree than is required.... but recent work by Christian Beck and Michael Mackey may have resolved the disparity. If their work is accurate, then dark energy is basically nothing other than ZPE or a superset/subset.
They propose that a phase transition occurs such that zero-point photons below a frequency of about 1.7 THz are gravitationally active whereas above that they are not. If true, the dark energy problem is solved: dark energy is the low frequency gravitationally active component of zero-point energy.
The 1.7 THz phase transition value is an important marker and consistent with measurable QED effects such as the Casimir effect, the Lamb shift, etc. The proposed phase transition value should be testable in the near future. It is in range which comes up in the studies of SPP (surface plasmons). NASA has done recent R&D work using terahertz radiation in a slightly higher THz range on a nickel lattice loaded with hydrogen, in order to induce LENR.
Perhaps NASA should have aimed lower and/or perhaps Holmlid will find access to the new THz lasers which are coming out in this exact range (which seems to be favored in terms of efficiency).
From: http://www.calphysics.org/zpe.html with comments added
