Related papers: Dark energy and quantum vacuum fluctuations
With the decline of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the recent experiments indicating that quantum mechanics does actually embody 'objective reality', one might ask if a 'mechanical', conceptual model for quantum…
If the observed dark energy is a cosmological constant, the canonical state of the universe is de Sitter spacetime. In such a spacetime, quantum fluctuations that violate the null energy condition will create islands of matter that, if…
We show how, by considering the cumulative effect of tiny quantum gravitational fluctuations over very large distances, it may be possible to: ($a$) reconcile nucleosynthesis bounds on the density parameter of the Universe with the…
We study fluctuations and correlations between spacial regions, generated by the primordial quantum gravitational phase of the universe. We do so by a numerical evaluation of Lorentzian amplitudes in Loop Quantum Gravity, in a…
It is assumed that, for weak spacetime curvature, the main gravitational effect of the quantum vacuum stress-energy corresponds to adding two terms to the Einstein-Hilbert action, proportional to the square of the curvature scalar and to…
A new idea of the cosmological constant is proposed in this paper. Due to the horizon is limited, the quantum fluctuation of the inflaton field is not zero, a nonzero vacuum energy is remained as a residual inflationary energy of an unusual…
Vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field induce current fluctuations in resistively shunted Josephson junctions that are measurable in terms of a physical power spectrum. In this paper we investigate under which conditions vacuum…
A formula to calculate the quantum fluctuations of energy in small subsystems of a hot and relativistic gas is derived. We find an increase in fluctuations for subsystems of small sizes, but we agrees with the energy fluctuations in the…
The physical nature of the currently observed dark energy in the universe is completely unclear, and many different theoretical models co-exist. Nevertheless, if dark energy is produced by vacuum fluctuations then there is a chance to probe…
In this paper we calculate quantum corrections to the effective potential in different models of inflationary cosmology. We show that quantum corrections lead to a modification of the initial potential uplifting its value at the minimum,…
Some cosmological implications of ultraviolet quantum effects leading to a condensation of Born-Infeld matter are considered. It is shown that under very general conditions the quantum condensate can not act as phantom matter if its energy…
We assume that particles are point-like objects even when not observed. We report on the consequences of our assumption within the realm of quantum theory. An important consequence is the necessity of vacuum fields to account for particle…
The equivalence postulate of quantum mechanics offers an axiomatic approach to quantum field theories and quantum gravity. The equivalence hypothesis can be viewed as adaptation of the classical Hamilton-Jacobi formalism to quantum…
By example of a model with a spatially global scalar field, we show that the energy density of zero-point modes is exponentially suppressed by an average number of field quanta in a finite volume with respect to the energy density in the…
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…
We derive a formula that defines quantum fluctuations of energy in subsystems of a hot relativistic gas. For small subsystem sizes we find substantial increase of fluctuations compared to those known from standard thermodynamic…
We discuss the relevance of quantum gravity to the frontier questions in high energy phenomenology: the problems of dark matter, dark energy, and vacuum selection as well as the problems of emergent spacetime and wormholes. Dark matter and…
Understanding the quantum nature of the gravitational field is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges in theoretical physics. Despite significant progress, a complete and consistent theory remains elusive. However, in the weak field…
Dark energy is usually parametrized as a perfect fluid with negative pressure and a certain equation of state. Besides, it is supposed to interact very weakly with the rest of the components of the universe and, as a consequence, there is…
Fluctuations are ubiquitous in nature. They are one of the fundamental building blocks of quantum mechanics and are responsible for a wide variety of phenomena in many areas of physics, ranging from biology to cosmology. Far from any…