Qubit Casimir effect

Abstract

In this letter we propose a new interpretation of the Casimir effect. Concretely, we show that the Casimir energy can be written as the quantum ``Von Neumann'' entropy associated to a 2-qubit, mixed pseudo-density matrix of the relevant quantum fluctuations. The quantum entropy we introduce draws parallels to the concept of quantum inseparability found in quantum information theory. Our results suggest that the Casimir energy is a measure of the quantum entropy of the vacuum fluctuations.