Gravitational and Inertial Mass of Casimir Energy

Understand

It has been demonstrated, using variational methods, that quantum vacuum energy gravitates according to the equivalence principle, at least for the finite Casimir energies associated with perfectly conducting parallel plates.

• This conclusion holds independently of the orientation of the plates.
• We review these arguments and add further support to this conclusion by considering parallel semitransparent plates, that is, $\delta$-function potentials, acting on a massless scalar field, in a spacetime defined by Rindler coordinates.
• We calculate the force on systems consisting of one or two such plates undergoing acceleration perpendicular to the plates.