So, I read, that the Casimir effect arises from the ground state of the electromagnetic field. But I don't understand where the electromagnetic field in the Casimir effect comes from, since we are considering neutral metallic plates.
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The Casimir force has a mystique that it doesn't deserve. It's just an ordinary electromagnetic force between charged particles.
If the plates were made of uncharged particles, there would be no Casimir force. But metals are made of charged electrons and nuclei. At large distances the electromagnetic field of the positive and negative charges cancels almost perfectly, but at small distances the separation between the charges is relatively large and there are detectable electromagnetic effects.
