Related papers: The Vacuum and the Cosmological Constant Problem
Although the cosmological constant has primarily cosmological consequences, its smallness poses one of the basic problems in particle physics. Various attempts have been made to explain this mystery, but no satisfactory solution has been…
We show that the cosmological constant appears as a Lagrange multiplier if nature is described by a canonical noncommutative spacetime. It is thus an arbitrary parameter unrelated to the action and thus to vacuum fluctuations. The…
General relativity can be cast as a gauge theory by introducing a tetrad field and a spin-connection. This formalism was extended by replacing the tetrad field with a mixed tensor field independent of the metric tensor in order to develop a…
Following fresh attempts to resolve the problem of the energy density of the vacuum, we reconsider the case where the cosmological constant is derived from a higher-dimensional version of general relativity, and interpret the…
It is suggested that the exact value of the cosmological constant could be derived from first principles, based on entanglement of the Standard Model field vacuum with emergent holographic quantum geometry. For the observed value of the…
A mechanism is introduced to reduce a large cosmological constant to a sufficiently small value consistent with observational upper limit. The basic ingradient in this mechanism is a distinction which has been made between the two unit…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is described, using a superconducting analogy in which fermions coupled to gravitons are in an unstable false vauum. The coupling of the fermions to gravitons and a screened attractive…
In quantum field theory the parameters of the vacuum action are subject to renormalization group running. In particular, the ``cosmological constant'' is not a constant in a quantum field theory context, still less should be zero. In this…
We propose an approach to explaining why naive large quantum fluctuations are not the right estimate for the cosmological constant. We argue that the universe is in a superposition of many vacua, in such a way that the resulting…
The cosmological constant problem is a fundamental issue that has puzzled researchers in the fields of theoretical physics and cosmology for a long time. It arises from the discrepancy between the observed value of the cosmological constant…
We introduce the notion of background independent quantum field theory. The distinguishing feature of this theory is that the dynamics can be formulated without recourse to a background metric structure. We show in a simple model how the…
It is will known that quantum field theory at the formal level is gauge invariant. However a calculation of the vacuum polarization tensor will include non-gauge invariant terms. These terms must be removed from the calculation in order to…
Within the holographic cosmology paradigm, specifically the model of McFadden and Skenderis, but more generally than that, the cosmological constant is found to naturally flow from a large value, to a small value, which can even be as low…
We connect a possible solution for the ``cosmological constant problem'' to the existence of a (postulated) conformal fixed point in a fundamental theory. The resulting cosmology leads to quintessence, where the present acceleration of the…
By regarding the vacuum as a perfect fluid with equation of state p=-rho, de Sitter's cosmological model is quantized. Our treatment differs from previous ones in that it endows the vacuum with dynamical degrees of freedom. Instead of being…
This talk summarizes a new understanding of the cosmological constant problem, which essentially relies on a phase-space-like computation of the vacuum energy, both in the realm of quantum field theory coupled to gravity, and in the realm…
In addressing the cosmological constant problem, we propose that the discrepancy between the theoretical and observed values can be ascribed to the inherent uncertainty in the spacetime metric. Mach's principle, which posits that mass…
Quantum field theory is assumed to be gauge invariant. However it is well known that when certain quantities are calculated using perturbation theory the results are not gauge invariant. The non-gauge invariant terms have to be removed in…
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 cosmological constant problem represents a profound conflict between quantum field theory and general relativity. Unimodular gravity offers a compelling starting point by de-gravitating the vacuum energy of the Standard Model, but this…