Proof that Casimir force does not originate from vacuum energy

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• 作者：Hrvoje Nikolić ^{hnikolic@irb.hr" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 刊名：Physics Letters B
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：10 October 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：761
• 期：Complete
• 页码：197-202
• 全文大小：299 K

文摘

We present a simple general proof that Casimir force cannot originate from the vacuum energy of electromagnetic (EM) field. The full QED Hamiltonian consists of 3 terms: the pure electromagnetic term H_em$H_{\mathrm{em}}$, the pure matter term H_matt$H_{\mathrm{matt}}$ and the interaction term H_int$H_{\mathrm{int}}$. The H_em$H_{\mathrm{em}}$-term commutes with all matter fields because it does not have any explicit   dependence on matter fields. As a consequence, H_em$H_{\mathrm{em}}$ cannot generate any forces on matter. Since it is precisely this term that generates the vacuum energy of EM field, it follows that the vacuum energy does not generate the forces. The misleading statements in the literature that vacuum energy generates Casimir force can be boiled down to the fact that H_em$H_{\mathrm{em}}$ attains an implicit   dependence on matter fields by the use of the equations of motion and to the illegitimate treatment of the implicit dependence as if it was explicit. The true origin of the Casimir force is van der Waals force generated by H_int$H_{\mathrm{int}}$.