There has been a long debate over the question of whether zero-point fluctuations of quantized vacuum fields are "real" i.e. do they have physical effects that cannot be interpreted by an equally valid alternative theory? Schwinger, in particular, attempted to formulate QED without reference to zero-point fluctuations via his "source theory". From such an approach it is possible to derive the Casimir Effect without reference to a fluctuating field. Such a derivation was first given by Schwinger (1975) for a scalar field, and then generalized to the electromagnetic case by Schwinger, DeRaad, and Milton (1978). in which they state "the vacuum is regarded as truly a state with all physical properties equal to zero". More recently Jaffe (2005) has highlighted a similar approach in deriving the Casimir effect stating "the concept of zero-point fluctuations is a heuristic and calculational aid in the description of the Casimir effect, but not a necessity in QED."
Nevertheless, as Jaffe himself notes in his paper, "no one has shown that source theory or another S-matrix based approach can provide a complete description of QED to all orders." Furthermore, Milonni has shown the necessity of the vacuum field for the formal consistency of QED. In QCD, color confinement has led physicists to abandon the source theory or S-matrix based approach for the strong interactions. The Higgs mechanism, Hawking Radiation and the Unruh effect are also theorized to be dependent on zero-point vacuum fluctuations, the field contribution being an inseparable parts of these theories. Jaffe continues "Even if one could argue away zero-point contributions to the quantum vacuum energy, the problem of spontaneous symmetry breaking remains: condensates [ground state vacua] that carry energy appear at many energy scales in the Standard Model. So there is good reason to be skeptical of attempts to avoid the standard formulation of quantum field theory and the zero-point energies it brings with it." It is difficult to judge the physical reality of infinite zero-point energies that are inherent in field theories, but modern physics does not know any better way to construct gauge-invariant, renormalizable theories than with zero-point energy and they would seem to be a necessity for any attempt at a unified theory.