https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09733-1
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Playing with Casimir in the vacuum sandbox
1
The Institute for System Biology, Seattle, WA, USA
2
Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Biophysics, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
3
Center for Life Nano Science@La Sapienza, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 00161, Rome, Italy
4
Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo CNR, Via dei Taurini 19, Rome, Italy
5
Institute for Applied Computational Science, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
6
CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Received:
20
April
2021
Accepted:
9
October
2021
Published online:
25
October
2021
The Casimir effect continues to be a subject of discussion regarding its relationship, or the lack of it, with the vacuum energy of fluctuating quantum fields. In this note, we propose a Gedankenexperiment considering an imaginary process similar to a vacuum fluctuation in a typical static Casimir set up. The thought experiment leads to intriguing conclusions regarding the minimum distance between the plates when approaching the Planck scale. More specifically, it is found that distance between the plates cannot reach a value below 
Planck lengths, being 
the Planck length and L the typical lateral extension of the plates. Additional findings allow the conclusion that the approach between the two plates towards this minimum separation distance is asymptotic.
© The Author(s) 2021
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