The cosmological constant, also known as dark energy, was believed to be caused by vacuum fluctuations, but naive calculations give results in stark disagreement with fact. In the Casimir effect, vacuum fluctuations cause forces in dielectric media, which is very well described by Lifshitz theory. Recently, using the analogy between geometries and media, a cosmological constant of the correct order of magnitude was calculated with Lifshitz theory (Leonhardt 2019 Ann. Phys. (New York) 411, 167973. (doi:10.1016/j.aop.2019.167973)). This paper discusses the empirical evidence and the ideas behind the Lifshitz theory of the cosmological constant without requiring prior knowledge of cosmology and quantum field theory. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The next generation of analogue gravity experiments’.

中文翻译：

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卡西米尔宇宙学的案例

宇宙常数，也称为暗能量，被认为是由真空波动引起的，但天真的计算得出的结果与事实完全不符。在卡西米尔效应中，真空波动会在电介质中产生力，这在 Lifshitz 理论中得到了很好的描述。最近，使用几何学和介质之间的类比，使用 Lifshitz 理论计算了正确数量级的宇宙常数 (Leonhardt 2019 Ann. Phys. (New York) 411, 167973. (doi:10.1016/j.aop.2019.167973)) ）。本文讨论了 Lifshitz 宇宙常数理论背后的经验证据和思想，而无需具备宇宙学和量子场论的先验知识。本文是讨论会议问题“下一代模拟重力实验”的一部分。