Probing foamy spacetime with Variational Methods
  A one-loop correction of the quasilocal energy in the Schwarzschild background, with flat space as a reference metric, is performed by means of a variational procedure in the Hamiltonian framework. We examine the graviton sector in momentum space, in the lowest possible state. An application to the black hole pair creation via the Casimir energy is presented. Implications on the foam-like scenario are discussed. 
Remo Garattini