English

Unimodular approaches to the cosmological constant problem

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2023-01-05 v1

Abstract

We review selected aspects of unimodular gravity and we discuss its viability as a solution of the old cosmological constant problem. In unimodular gravity the cosmological constant is promoted to a global degree of freedom. We highlight the importance of correctly setting up its initial data in order to achieve a resolution of the cosmological constant problem on a semi-classical level. We review recent path integral analysis of quantum aspects of unimodular gravity to note that the semi-classical findings carry over to the quantum level as well. We point out that a resolution of the problem inherently relies on a global constraint on the space-time four-volume. This makes the theory closely related to the vacuum energy sequester, which operates in a similar way. We discuss possible avenues of extending unimodular gravity that preserve the resolution of the cosmological constant problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2301.01662,
  title  = {Unimodular approaches to the cosmological constant problem},
  author = {Pavel Jiroušek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.01662},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Invited review for Universe, Special Issue 'Cosmological Constant' (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/universe/special_issues/cosmological_constant_problem), 22 pages + references

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:02:39.535Z