How Does Casimir Energy Fall?

Abstract

Doubt continues to linger over the reality of quantum vacuum energy. There is some question whether fluctuating fields gravitate at all, or do so anomalously. Here we show that for the simple case of parallel conducting plates, the associated Casimir energy gravitates just as required by the equivalence principle, and that therefore the inertial and gravitational masses of a system possessing Casimir energy $E_c$ are both $E_c/c^2$. This simple result disproves recent claims in the literature. We clarify some pitfalls in the calculation that can lead to spurious dependences on coordinate system.

5 pages, 1 figure, REVTeX. Minor revisions, including changes in references

References in corpus (6)

• The Dirichlet Casimir Problem
• Fermi Coordinates for Weak Gravitational Fields
• Energy-momentum tensor for a Casimir apparatus in a weak gravitational field
• Vacuum fluctuation force on a rigid Casimir cavity in a gravitational field
• Constraints on extra dimensions from cosmological and terrestrial measurements
• Inertia of Casimir energy

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