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First edition, very rare offprints, of the prediction and explanation of the 'Casimir effect', a small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. In the same year, Casimir, together with Dirk Polder, described a similar effect experienced by a neutral atom in the vicinity of a macroscopic interface which is referred to as the Casimir Polder force. The Casimir force was first directly measured by S. Lamoreaux in 1997, who found a value within 5 per cent of Casimir's prediction. "The fact that an attractive force exists between two conducting metal plates was first predicted in 1948 by Hendrik Casimir of Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands. At the time, however, Casimir was studying the properties of 'colloidal solutions'. These are viscous materials, such as paint and mayonnaise, that contain micron-sized particles in a liquid matrix. The properties of such solutions are determined by van der Waals forces - long-range, attractive forces that exist between neutral atoms and molecules. One of Casimir's colleagues, Theo Overbeek, realized that the theory that was used at the time to explain van der Waals forces, which had been developed by Fritz London in 1932, did not properly explain the experimental measurements on colloids. Overbeek therefore asked Casimir to investigate the problem. Working with Dirk Polder, Casimir discovered that the interaction between two neutral molecules could be correctly described only if the fact that light travels at a finite speed was taken into account. Soon afterwards, Casimir noticed that this result could be interpreted in terms of vacuum fluctuations" (Lambrecht, The Casimir effect: a force from nothing, Physics World, 1 September 2002). "The Casimir effect is one of several phenomena that provide convincing evidence for the reality of the quantum vacuum - the equivalent in quantum mechanics of what, in classical physics, would be described as empty space. According to modern physics, a vacuum is full of fluctuating electromagnetic waves of all possible wavelengths which imbue it with a vast amount of energy, normally invisible to us. Casimir realized that between two plates, only those unseen electromagnetic waves whose wavelengths fit a whole number of times into the gap should be counted when calculating the vacuum energy. As the gap between the plates is narrowed (to a few nanometers), fewer waves can contribute to the vacuum energy and so the energy density between the plates falls below the energy density of the surrounding space. The result is a tiny force trying to pull the plates together" (David Darling). The Casimir effect is important in nanoscale structures and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). As MEMS devices are fabricated on the micron and submicron scale, the Casimir force can cause the tiny elements in a device to stick together. "The Casimir effect has been linked to the possibility of faster-than-light travel because of the fact that the region inside a Casimir cavity has negative energy density . . . Regions of negative energy density are thought to be essential to a number of hypothetical faster-than-light propulsion schemes, including stable wormholes and the Alcubierre warp drive" (ibid.). It has been suggested that light may travel faster in negative energy regions than in a vacuum, and that this may also make possible faster-than-light travel in the future. The two offered pamphlets constitute the offprints from Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen and Physical Review, but 'rebranded' by binding them in wrappers produced by the Philips Laboratory. Two offprints, 8vo, pp. [1], 793-795; 360-372, [3, blank]. Original printed wrappers.
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