Rebuttal to: Has dark energy really been discovered in the Lab?

Abstract

We argue that a recent discussion of Jetzer and Straumann [Phys. Lett. B 606, 77 (2005)] relating the measured noise spectrum in Josephson junctions to van der Waals forces is incorrect. The measured noise spectrum in Josephson junctions is a consequence of the fluctuation dissipation theorem and the Josephson effect and has nothing to do with van der Waals forces. Consequently, the argument of Jetzer and Straumann does not shed any light on whether dark energy can or cannot be measured using superconducting Josephson devices. We also point out that a more recent paper of Jetzer and Straumann [Phys. Lett. B 639, 57 (2006)] claiming that `zeropoint energies do not show up in any application of the fluctuation dissipation theorem' violates the standard view on the subject.