A Casimir approach to dark energy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a Casimir-based calculation of vacuum gravitational self-energy that could explain dark energy density, linking it to SUSY-breaking scale around 5 TeV, and offers a quantum perspective on fundamental energy scale relations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Casimir approach to compute vacuum gravitational self-energy and connects it to dark energy and fundamental energy scales.

Findings

Casimir gravitational self-energy density matches observed dark energy density at ~5 TeV SUSY-breaking scale

Provides a quantum mechanism for the relation between Planck, SUSY, and cosmological constant scales

Supports the idea that vacuum fluctuations contribute significantly to dark energy

Abstract

We calculate the gravitational self-energy of vacuum quantum field fluctuations using a Casimir approach. We find that the Casimir gravitational self-energy density can account for the measured dark energy density when the SUSY-breaking energy is approximately 5 TeV, in good agreement with current estimates. Furthermore, the Casimir gravitational self-energy appears to provide a quantum mechanism for the well-know geometric relation between the Planck, SUSY and cosmological constant energy scales.