Exact mechanism of Casimir force

[alpha_wolf]

Do we actually know exactly how the Casimir force is produced, or is this still something to be researched? I know the plates block out some of the vaccum flactuations modes, so the "pressure" outside the plates is more than the "pressure" inside the plates. But how does this "pressure" form? Is this an issue of reflecting the incident waves off the plates, or is there something else going on?

[ZapperZ]

Do we actually know exactly how the Casimir force is produced, or is this still something to be researched? I know the plates block out some of the vaccum flactuations modes, so the "pressure" outside the plates is more than the "pressure" inside the plates. But how does this "pressure" form? Is this an issue of reflecting the incident waves off the plates, or is there something else going on?

http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/9901011
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/0106045

I always hesitate when dealing with this because quacks would bastardize the "headlines" and think zero-point energy is that easy to pop into existence....

Zz.

[da_willem]

The same thing happens with waterwaves. When two ships are close together they are drawn to each other. So it's a quite general wave phenomenon. This doesn't bring you any closer to the exact nature of the Casimir force though... :wink:.