Related papers: Naturalness of exponential cosmon potentials and t…
We discuss the cosmological constant problem in the light of dilatation symmetry and its possible anomaly. For dilatation symmetric quantum theories realistic asymptotic cosmology is obtained provided the effective potential has a…
We investigate the coupled system of gravity and a scalar with exponential potential. The energy momentum tensor of the scalar field induces a time-dependent cosmological ``constant''. This adjusts itself dynamically to become in the…
We consider an effective field theory description of gravity coupled to a scalar field with volume-preserving diffeomorphism and Weyl invariances. The smallness of the cosmological constant is achieved when the potential of the scalar is…
We discuss some of the issues which we encounter when we try to invoke the scalar-tensor theories of gravitation as a theoretical basis of quintessence. One of the advantages of appealing to these theories is that they allow us to implement…
In this article the cosmological constant problems, as well as the astronomical evidence for a cosmologically significant homogeneous exotic energy density with negative pressure (quintessence), are reviewed for a broad audience of…
Within present constraints on the observed smooth energy and its equation of state parameter, it is important to find out whether the smooth energy is static (cosmological constant) or dynamic (quintessence). The most dynamical quintessence…
We show how the scalar field, a candidate of quintessence, in a proposed model of the scalar-tensor theories of gravity provides a way to understand a small but nonzero cosmological constant as indicated by recent observations. A particular…
The Planck scale is usually believed to be an unpassable wall. Putting a cutoff there and thinking of it as a quantized spacetime entity shows that. However, this is exactly the cause of many problems in quantum gravity. The cosmological…
For evolution of flat universe, we classify late time and future attractors with scaling behavior of scalar field quintessence in the case of potential, which, at definite values of its parameters and initial data, corresponds to exact…
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…
At the level of the Planck scale, the spacetime metric has to be considered a quantum variable. Conformal quantum fluctuations of the metric tensor are studied here. They lead to an extra term in the Einstein equations which can be…
Graviton fluctuations induce strong non-perturbative infrared renormalization effects for the cosmological constant. The functional renormalization flow drives a positive cosmological constant towards zero, solving the cosmological constant…
We have critically compared different approaches to the cosmological constant problem, which is at the edge of elementary particle physics and cosmology. This problem is deeply connected with the difficulties formulating a theory of quantum…
The discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating in time is a major discovery which still awaits adequate explanation. It is generally agreed that this implies a cosmic repulsion as a result of the existence of a…
There is some evidence that the Universe is presently undergoing accelerating expansion. This has restored some credit to the scenarios with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. From the point of view of a theory of fundamental…
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…
An artificial scale of observable cosmological constant is dynamically related to its natural bare value due to an installation of relevant coherent state for the inflationary field in a finite volume of early Universe, because of…
The cosmological constant problem is examined under the assumption that the extrinsic curvature of the space-time contributes to the vacuum. A compensation mechanism based on a variable cosmological term is proposed. Under a suitable…
We examine in the context of general relativity the dynamics of a spatially flat Robertson-Walker universe filled with a classical minimally coupled scalar field \phi of exponential potential ~ e^{-\mu\phi} plus pressureless baryonic…
We consider extra compact dimensions as the origin of a cosmological universal energy density in the regular dimensions, with only graviton fields propagating in the compact space dimensions. The quantum zero point energy originating from…