Related papers: Shadow vacuum alignment and dark energy
It has recently been conjectured that string theory does not admit de Sitter vacua, and that quintessence explains the current epoch of accelerated cosmic expansion. A proposed, key prediction of this scenario is time-varying couplings in…
The decaying vacuum model (DV), treating dark energy as a varying vacuum, has been studied well recently. The vacuum energy decays linearly with the Hubble parameter in the late-times, $\rho_\Lambda(t) \propto H(t)$, and produces the…
We consider late-time cosmology in a (phantom) scalar-tensor theory with an exponential potential, as a dark energy model with equation of state parameter close to -1 (a bit above or below this value). Scalar (and also other kinds of)…
The observation in the universe of a small but positive vacuum energy strongly suggests, in the string landscape picture, that there will ultimately be a phase transition to an exactly supersymmetric universe. This ground state or "true…
We consider a modified cosmological history in which the presence of beyond-the-Standard-Model physics causes the weak gauge sector, $\mathrm{SU}(2)_L$, to confine before it is Higgsed. Under the assumption of chiral symmetry breaking,…
We investigate a model of dark sector based on non-Abelian $SU(2)_D$ gauge symmetry. This dark gauge symmetry is broken into discrete $Z_2$ via vacuum expectation values of two real triplet scalars, and an $SU(2)_D$ doublet Dirac fermion…
The idea of composite dark energy (DE) is quite natural since on general grounds we expect that the vacuum energy density (associated with the cosmological term $\Lambda$) may appear in combination with other effective forms of DE, denoted…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
We consider that the universe is trapped in an excited vacuum state and the resulting excitation energy provides the observed dark energy. We explore the conditions under which this situation can arise from physics already known.…
Dark energy in the universe is assumed to be vacuum energy. The energy-momentum of vacuum is described by a scale-dependent cosmological constant. The equations of motion imply for the density of matter (dust) the sum of the usual matter…
The quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable state ("false vacuum decay") is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory and cosmology. This occurs via local formation of bubbles of true vacuum with their subsequent…
We present an approach to the problem of vacuum energy in cosmology, based on dynamical screening of Lambda on the horizon scale. We review first the physical basis of vacuum energy as a phenomenon connected with macroscopic boundary…
Extending previous results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 081301 (2006)], we explore the cosmological implications of a new quintessence scenario driven by a slow rolling homogeneous scalar field whose equation of state behaved as freezing over the…
We propose a supersymmetric extension of the dynamical dark energy function and the corresponding scalar (super)potential in F(R) supergravity. Our model is viable in the Einstein approximation, and also has an analytic (regular)…
We investigate an interacting dark sector scenario in which the vacuum energy is free to interact with cold dark matter (CDM), which itself is assumed to cluster under the sole action of gravity, i.e. it is in free fall (geodesic), as in…
In the last decades, a cosmological model that fits observations through a vast range of scales emerged. It goes under the name of ${\Lambda}$CDM. However, there are still challenging questions that remain unanswered by this model, such as…
We propose a cosmological model that makes a significant step toward solving the coincidence problem of the near similarity at the present of the dark energy and dark matter components. Our cosmology has the following properties: a) among…
The enigmatic phenomenon of dark energy (DE) is regarded as the elusive entity driving the accelerated expansion of our Universe. A plausible candidate for DE is the non-zero Einstein Cosmological Constant $\Lambda_{E}$ manifested as a…
In this colloquium-level account, I describe the cosmological constant problem: why is the energy of empty space at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it from the Standard Model of particle physics? I…
In the context of a homogeneous and isotropic universe, we consider the degeneracy condition at the background level between two scenarios in which processes out of equilibrium are possible; this consideration allows us to deviate from the…