Casimir effect, energy conservation

[Gabriele Pinna]

I was reading some articles about Casimir effect. It turns out that some virtual particles are created and suddenly disappears amd that these particles can exert a pressure on the plates. It seems that this creation breaks energy conservation law, but it cannot be.I would like to know which system provides the energy to actually create these particles.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Why doesn't having two plates connected by a spring violate energy conservation?

 

[bhobba]

I was reading some articles about Casimir effect. It turns out that some virtual particles are created and suddenly disappears amd that these particles can exert a pressure on the plates. It seems that this creation breaks energy conservation law, but it cannot be.I would like to know which system provides the energy to actually create these particles.

Virtual particles do not actually exist - its one of a number of myths of QM:
https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0609163

This is a beginner level thread, but explaining what the Casimir Force really is, is an advanced topic. I will tell you the answer then refer you to advanced papers so you understand I am not just making this up. Its really just a relativistic Van der Waals force. You probably learned about Van der Waals forces in your chemistry class at HS - that's all that's really going on. Now for the papers justifying it:
http://www.theo.phys.ulg.ac.be/~cugnon/cas.pdf

And from the person that wrote the myths and facts paper I gave a link to:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.04143

Thanks
Bill

 

[Demystifier]

I was reading some articles about Casimir effect. It turns out that some virtual particles are created and suddenly disappears amd that these particles can exert a pressure on the plates. It seems that this creation breaks energy conservation law, but it cannot be.I would like to know which system provides the energy to actually create these particles.

The Casimir force is just a collective effect of electromagnetic forces between charges that constitute atoms of which the Casimir plates are made. The electromagnetic force, of course, does not violate energy conservation.

For more details see also https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...vacuum-energy-and-a-bit-of-relativity.882958/