The vacuum electromagnetic energy density — Towards a physical comprehension of the vacuum energy scale problem

Abstract

The electromagnetic field ground state, a zero-energy cosmic field permeating all of space, issues naturally from Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory and its fluctuations may generate transient photons conferring a physical solution to the vacuum energy scale problem. They are more significant at long wavelengths underlying principally the low frequency up to infrared cosmic radiation background. Assuming an exponentially decreasing probability with increasing frequency for the fluctuating photons the obtained vacuum energy density is in agreement with the astrophysical observations. Consequently, the electromagnetic field ground state fluctuations might be the principal component of the dark energy considered responsible for the observed cosmic acceleration.