Related papers: TASI Lectures on the Cosmological Constant
A huge amount of good quality data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision Cosmology. Despite…
Combining general relativity and gravitational gauge theory, the cosmological constant is determined theoretically. The cosmological constant is related to the average vacuum energy of gravitational gauge field. Because the vacuum energy of…
We investigate the gravitational property of the quantum vacuum by treating its large energy density predicted by quantum field theory seriously and assuming that it does gravitate to obey the equivalence principle of general relativity. We…
The cosmological constant (vacuum energy) problem is analyzed within the scope of quantum theories with UV-cut-off or fundamental length. Various cases associated with the appearance of the latter are considered both using the Generalized…
We focus on uncertainties in supernova measurements, in particular of individual magnitudes and redshifts, to review to what extent supernovae measurements of the expansion history of the universe are likely to allow us to constrain a…
The cosmological constant problem represents an evident tension between our present description of gravity and particle physics. Many solutions have been proposed, but experimental tests are always difficult or impossible to perform and…
An accelerated universe should naturally have a vacuum energy density determined by its dynamical curvature. The cosmological constant is most likely a temporary description of a dynamical variable that has been drastically evolving from…
In the presence of the gravitational field, the energy density of matter no longer coincides with its mass density. A discrepancy exists, of course, also between the associated power spectra. Within the $\Lambda$CDM model, we derive a…
Cosmology is entering a very exciting time in its history, when a wealth of cutting-edge experiments are all starting to collect data, or about to. These experiments aim at addressing some of the most intriguing questions in fundamental…
We find that current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy data strongly constrain the mean spatial curvature of the Universe to be near zero, or, equivalently, the total energy density to be near critical-as predicted by inflation.…
The concept of exotic charged dust is introduced here to represent dark matter. The term "exotic" means that the dust is not composed of normal matter, and the charge--for lack of a better term--is not an electric charge. It is also shown…
We derive new limits on the value of the cosmological constant, $\Lambda$, based on the Einstein bending of light by systems where the lens is a distant galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. We use an amended lens equation in which the…
In the standard cosmological model, the Universe consists mainly of two invisible substances: vacuum energy with constant mass-density rho_v=\Lambda/(8pi G) (where Lambda is a `cosmological constant' originally proposed by Einstein and G is…
The recent robust and homogeneous analysis of the world's supernova distance-redshift data, together with cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillation data, provides a powerful tool for constraining cosmological models. Here…
According to the recent astronomical data, the most part of energy in the Universe is in the 'dark' form, which is effectively described by Lambda-term in Einstein equations. All arguments in favor of the dark energy were obtained so far…
The cosmological constant problem is turned around to argue for a new foundational physics postulate underlying a consistent quantum theory of gravity and matter, such as string theory. This postulate is a quantum equivalence principle…
The cosmological constant term (CC), $\Lambda$, is a pivotal ingredient in the standard model of cosmology or $\Lambda$CDM, but it is a rigid quantity for the entire cosmic history. This is unnatural and inconsistent. Different theoretical…
Most of the literature on general relativity over the last century assumes that the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is zero. However, by now independent observations have led to a consensus that the dynamics of the universe is best…
We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient…
Most of the calculations done to obtain the value of the cosmological constant use methods of quantum gravity, a theory that has not been established as yet, and a variety of results are usually obtained. The numerical value of the…