  The Casimir effect, a key observable realization of vacuum fluctuations, is
usually taught in graduate courses on quantum field theory. The growing
importance of Casimir forces in microelectromechanical systems motivates this
subject as a topic for graduate many-body physics courses. To this end, we
revisit the Casimir effect using methods common in condensed matter physics. We
recover previously derived results and explore the implications of the
analogies implicit in this treatment.
