On Nov 5, 2004, at 3:34 PM, Gary S. Bekkum wrote:

Has Dark Energy really been discovered in the Lab?

http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0411034

Authors: Philippe Jetzer, Norbert Straumann
Comments: reaction to a paper by Beck and Mackey, astro-ph//0406504

We show that Dark Energy contributions cannot be determined from noise measurements of Josephson junctions, as was recently suggested in a paper by C. Beck and M.C. Mackey.

This paper is also relevant to some of Puthoff's claims on the connection of zero point energy to the flat plate Casimir force ~ hcA/d^4

In fact the zero point energy in ordinary vacuum = 0 otherwise its bending of space-time would be too strong. This is the cosmological constant paradox. I have shown that the Higgs Ocean vacuum coherence sucks up all the zero point energy except in some "exotic vacuum" situations that show up as both (w = -1) "dark energy" and "dark matter". The latter simulates w = 0 in its gravity lensing multiple imaging seen by distant observers.

In fact the Casimir force is an electrostatic force of mutually induced electric dipoles in the neutral molecules of the plates. The real formula for Casimir force is

Casimir force ~ e^2A/d^4

the e^2 is the usual electrostatic Casimir-Polder dipole-dipole force when the summation over the plates is done properly. See Ian Peterson's papers or Milonni's book. Milonni has 3 methods only his last is correct because Milonni did not include gravity in his first two models.

Eric Davis's explanation of the Casimir force in his USAF paper is also wrong, but it is a common error because of the confusion over the cosmological constant problem.