Radiative corrections to the Casimir force and effective field theories

Radiative corrections to the Casimir force between two parallel plates are considered in both scalar field theory of one massless and one massive field and in QED. Full calculations are contrasted with calculations based on employing ``boundary-free'' effective field theories. The difference between two previous results on QED radiative corrections to the Casimir force between two parallel plates is clarified and the low-energy effective field theory for the Casimir effect in QED is constructed.