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Several years ago Schwinger proposed a physical mechanism forsonoluminescence in terms of changes in the properties of thequantum-electrodynamic (QED) vacuum state. This mechanism is most often phrasedin terms of changes in the Casimir Energy: changes in the distribution ofzero-point energies and has recently been the subject of considerablecontroversy. The present paper further develops this quantum-vacuum approach tosonoluminescence: We calculate Bogolubov coefficients relating the QED vacuumstates in the presence of a homogeneous medium of changing dielectric constant.In this way we derive an estimate for the spectrum, number of photons, andtotal energy emitted. We emphasize the importance of rapid spatio-temporalchanges in refractive indices, and the delicate sensitivity of the emittedradiation to the precise dependence of the refractive index as a function ofwavenumber, pressure, temperature, and noble gas admixture. Although thephysics of the dynamical Casimir effect is a universal phenomenon of QED,specific experimental features are encoded in the condensed matter physicscontrolling the details of the refractive index. This calculation places rathertight constraints on the possibility of using the dynamical Casimir effect asan explanation for sonoluminescence, and we are hopeful that this scenario willsoon be amenable to direct experimental probes. In a companion paper we discussthe technical complications due to finite-size effects, but for reasons ofclarity in this paper we confine attention to bulk effects.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX 209, ReV-TeX 3.2, eight figures. Minor revisions:  Typos fixed, references updated, minor changes in numerical estimates, minor  changes in some figure

Sonoluminescence as a QED vacuum effect. I. The physical scenario