Related papers: TASI Lectures on the Cosmological Constant
The $\Lambda$CDM framework offers a remarkably good description of our universe with a very small number of free parameters, which can be determined with high accuracy from currently available data. However, this does not mean that the…
The behavior of the gravitating vacuum energy density in an expanding universe is discussed. A scenario is presented with a step-wise relaxation of the vacuum energy density. The vacuum energy density moves from plateau to plateau and…
The persistent challenge of creating stable de Sitter vacua within string theory undermines the observational validity of the $\Lambda$ cold dark matter (CDM) model. This difficulty suggests that the concordance model of cosmology,…
From an observational perspective cosmology is today in excellent shape - advances in instrumentation and data processing have enabled us to study the universe in detail back to when the first galaxies formed, map the fluctuations in the…
It is commonly recognized now that Dark Energy (Lambda-term) is of crucial importance both at the early (inflationary) stage of cosmological evolution and at the present time. However, little is known about its nature and origin till now.…
The cosmological constant problem can be understood as the failure of the decoupling principle behind effective field theory, so that some quantities in the low-energy theory are extremely sensitive to the high-energy properties. While this…
We consider a static spherically symmetric charged anisotropic fluid source of finite physical radius (\sim 10^{-16} cm) by introducing a scalar variable \Lambda dependent on the radial coordinate r under general relativity. From the…
Several kinds of astronomical observations, interpreted in the framework of the standard Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology, have indicated that our universe is dominated by a Cosmological Constant. The dimming of distant Type Ia…
Quintessence -- the energy density of a slowly evolving scalar field -- may constitute a dynamical form of the homogeneous dark energy in the universe. We review the basic idea in the light of the cosmological constant problem. Cosmological…
The present discussion contribution is some remarks concerning and review of the proposal by one of us (C. Balazs) to explain the cosmological constant by a/the principle of entropy. Used without further comment this principle of entropy…
We consider further consequences of recently [1] revealed role of cosmological constant \Lambda as of a physical constant, along with the gravitational one to define the gravity i.e. the General Relativity and its low-energy limit. We now…
One hope to solve the cosmological constant problem is to identify a symmetry principle, based on which the cosmological constant can be reduced either to zero, or to a tiny value. Here, we note that requiring that the vacuum state is…
We investigate Dark Energy by associating it with vacuum energy or Cosmological constant ${\Lambda}$ which is taken to be dynamic in nature. Our approach is phenomenological and falls within the domain of variable-$\Lambda$ Cosmology.…
We review current observations of the homogeneous cosmological expansion which, because they measure only kinematic variables, cannot determine the dynamics driving the recent accelerated expansion. The minimal fit to the data, the flat…
Observations suggest that nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and exerts negative pressure. Theoretical understanding of this component (`dark energy'), which is driving an accelerated expansion of…
The main consequences of de Sitter Special Relativity to the Standard Cosmological Model of Physical Cosmology are examined. The cosmological constant Lambda appears, in this theory, as a manifestation of the proper conformal current, which…
Considering the vacuum as characterized by the presence of only the gravitational field, we show that the vacuum energy density of the de Sitter space, in the realm of the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, can acquire…
The idea of a variable dark energy has been entertained many times in the literature and from many different points of view. Quintessence is just a popular way to implement this idea in recent times, but so far with little success. Another…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe points to a small positive value for the cosmological constant or vacuum energy density. We discuss recent ideas that the cosmological constant plus LHC results might hint at critical phenomena…
Motivated by some recent speculative attempts to model the dark energy, scalar fields with negative kinetic energy coupled to gravity without a cosmological constant are considered. It is shown that in the presence of an ordinary fluid, any…