Sure the Casimir effect involves QED. The virtual photons are in a sense a set of gauge redundancies that can be removed, though one need the moduli from these redundancies. This still defines a form of quantum topological number.
LC On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 11:30:51 AM UTC-5, Alan Grayson wrote: > > > > On Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 9:11:46 AM UTC-6, Lawrence Crowell wrote: >> >> The only thing that is measured is a difference in energy, and the modes >> between two parallel plates are different from those outside. So the >> difference in energy results in this slight pressure. >> >> LC >> > > From Wiki, below. Apparently there's an interpretation of the Casimir > effect which doesn't depend on vacuum energy, which, as I recall, is > Bruce's position on this issue. If no vacuum energy, then the claim that > photons and other elementary particles arose from the vacuum in the very > early universe is on dubious grounds. AG > > Relativistic van der Waals force[edit > <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Casimir_effect&action=edit§ion=5> > ] > > Alternatively, a 2005 paper by Robert Jaffe > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jaffe> of MIT states that "Casimir > effects can be formulated and Casimir forces can be computed without > reference to zero-point energies. They are relativistic, quantum forces > between charges and currents. The Casimir force (per unit area) between > parallel plates vanishes as alpha, the fine structure constant, goes to > zero, and the standard result, which appears to be independent of alpha, > corresponds to the alpha approaching infinity limit," and that "The Casimir > force is simply the (relativistic, retarded > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retarded_potential>) van der Waals force > between the metal plates."[17] > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect#cite_note-17> Casimir and > Polder's original paper used this method to derive the Casimir-Polder > force. In 1978, Schwinger, DeRadd, and Milton published a similar > derivation for the Casimir Effect between two parallel plates.[18] > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect#cite_note-18> In fact, the > description in terms of van der Waals forces is the only correct > description from the fundamental microscopic perspective,[19] > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect#cite_note-19>[20] > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect#cite_note-20> while other > descriptions of Casimir force are merely effective macroscopic descriptions. > >> >> On Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 10:40:45 PM UTC-5, Alan Grayson wrote: >>> >>> Does the Casimir effect establish that the vacuum has intrinsic energy, >>> and if so, what is its form? TIA, AG >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/f129bbc2-28ff-453b-9597-fc6c43fdc57d%40googlegroups.com.
