Schwinger's Dynamical Casimir Effect: Bulk Energy Contribution

Abstract

Schwinger's Dynamical Casimir Effect is one of several candidate explanations for sonoluminescence. Recently, several papers have claimed that Schwinger's estimate of the Casimir energy involved is grossly inaccurate. In this letter, we show that these calculations omit the crucial volume term. When the missing term is correctly included one finds full agreement with Schwinger's result for the Dynamical Casimir Effect. We have nothing new to say about sonoluminescence itself except to affirm that the Casimir effect is energetically adequate as a candidate explanation.