Identity of the van der Waals Force and the Casimir Effect and the Irrelevance of these Phenomena to Sonoluminescence

TL;DR

The paper demonstrates that the Casimir energy of a dielectric sphere equals the sum of molecular van der Waals energies, suggesting these phenomena are irrelevant to sonoluminescence.

Contribution

It provides a clear physical interpretation linking Casimir energy to molecular van der Waals energies, challenging their relevance to sonoluminescence.

Findings

Casimir energy matches the sum of van der Waals energies.

The energy is finite and repulsive after removing self-energy and surface effects.

This interpretation questions the role of these phenomena in sonoluminescence.

Abstract

We show that the Casimir, or zero-point, energy of a dilute dielectric ball, or of a spherical bubble in a dielectric medium, coincides with the sum of the van der Waals energies between the molecules that make up the medium. That energy, which is finite and repulsive when self-energy and surface effects are removed, may be unambiguously calculated by either dimensional continuation or by zeta function regularization. This physical interpretation of the Casimir energy seems unambiguous evidence that the bulk self-energy cannot be relevant to sonoluminescence.