<p>There are two problems that arise here. One obvious problem is that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Casimir effect</a> is attractive<sup>1</sup>, while <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dark energy</a> is repulsive. The other problem is one of scale.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00018547.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Casimir (1948)</a> shows that, between two particles (instead of the oft-cited case of two plates)
$$\delta E \propto R^{-7}$$
That's an <em>enormous</em> drop-off. On large scales, this should be negligible. Dark energy, however, is clearly non-negligible on these scales, while its effects are unobservable on small scales.</p>

<p>The Casimir effect is certainly one manifestation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">vacuum energy</a>, which may also be the cause of dark energy (in some theories), but that doesn't mean that dark energy is an example of the Casimir effect, or vice versa.</p>

<hr>

<p><sup>1 There <em>are</em> exceptions, as <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/12009/relationship-between-the-casimir-force-and-dark-energy#comment16695_12010">pointed out by Stan Liou</a>, which arise under certain conditions, but they wouldn't play a part here.</sup></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-04T19:27:12.307Z
Casimir force can be repulsive (Casimir-Lifshitz in that case), but yeah, fundamentally it's a van der Waals force between polarizable things with electric charge, so linking it to dark energy is dubious from the start. Moreover, only energy differences are measurable in QED, so no measurement of the Casimir effect (nor any QED effect) could detect an an absolute energy density of the set by gravity.
Stan Liou
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-04T19:31:26.327Z
@StanLiou Thanks for the mentioning the first point; I should add that in. I had considered mentioning in the can der Waals connection, especially as it features prominently in Casimir's original derivation, but I figured that might complicated the answer a bit much.
HDE 226868
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-04T18:55:50.210Z
2015-10-04T19:32:47.920Z
2017-04-13T12:59:06.910Z
HDE 226868
<p>This is related to another question I asked. Might we actually be observing dark energy when we do experiments that verify the Casimir effect?</p>

<dark-energy>
Relationship between the Casimir force and dark energy
Jack R. Woods
# Relationship between the Casimir force and dark energy

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-10-04)

This is related to another question I asked. Might we actually be observing dark energy when we do experiments that verify the Casimir effect?

**Tags:** dark-energy


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-10-04. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

There are two problems that arise here. One obvious problem is that [the Casimir effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect) is attractive1, while [dark energy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy) is repulsive. The other problem is one of scale.

[Casimir (1948)](http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00018547.pdf) shows that, between two particles (instead of the oft-cited case of two plates)
$$\delta E \propto R^{-7}$$
That's an *enormous* drop-off. On large scales, this should be negligible. Dark energy, however, is clearly non-negligible on these scales, while its effects are unobservable on small scales.

The Casimir effect is certainly one manifestation of [vacuum energy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy), which may also be the cause of dark energy (in some theories), but that doesn't mean that dark energy is an example of the Casimir effect, or vice versa.

---

1 There *are* exceptions, as [pointed out by username_2 username_2](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/12009/relationship-between-the-casimir-force-and-dark-energy#comment16695_12010), which arise under certain conditions, but they wouldn't play a part here.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Casimir force can be repulsive (Casimir-Lifshitz in that case), but yeah, fundamentally it's a van der Waals force between polarizable things with electric charge, so linking it to dark energy is dubious from the start. Moreover, only energy differences are measurable in QED, so no measurement of the Casimir effect (nor any QED effect) could detect an an absolute energy density of the set by gravity.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 Thanks for the mentioning the first point; I should add that in. I had considered mentioning in the can der Waals connection, especially as it features prominently in Casimir's original derivation, but I figured that might complicated the answer a bit much.  

---

