Related papers: Gravitational Coupling and Dynamical Reduction of …
A large value of the cosmological constant (CC) is induced in the Standard Model (SM) of Elementary Particle Physics because of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking. To provide a small value of the observable CC one has to introduce the vacuum…
We present an alternative cosmology based on conformal gravity, as originally introduced by H. Weyl and recently revisited by P. Mannheim and D. Kazanas. Unlike past similar attempts our approach is a purely kinematical application of the…
A dynamical theory is studied in which a scalar field $\phi$ in Einstein- Minkowski space is coupled to the four-velocity $N_{\mu}$ of a preferred inertial observer in that space. As a consistent requirement on this coupling we study a…
It is demonstrated that entropy and its density play a significant role in solving the problem of the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) of the Universe and hence the dark energy problem. Taking this in mind, two most popular…
In this work, we seek a cosmological mechanism that may define the sign of the effective gravitational coupling constant, {\em G}. To this end, we consider general scalar-tensor gravity theories as they provide the field theory natural…
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 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…
Motivated by an earlier work on fractional-action cosmology with a periodic weight function [1], we extend it by choosing a power-law weight function in the action. In this approach, we obtain a varying gravitational coupling constant. We…
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…
We outline the evaluation of the cosmological constant in the framework of the standard field-theoretical treatment of vacuum energy and discuss the relation between the vacuum energy problem and the gauge-group spontaneous symmetry…
The cosmological constant problem is one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics, since it is deeply rooted in the problematic interplay between quantum fields and gravity. The aim of this work is to review the key conceptual…
The notion of ``fundamental constant'' is heavily theory-laden. A natural, fairly precise formulation is possible in the context of the standard model (here defined to include gravity). Some fundamental constants have profound geometric…
One way that an anthropic selection mechanism may be manifest in a physical theory involves multiple domains in the universe with different values of the physical parameters. If this mechanism is to be relevant for understanding the small…
A mechanism to control the cosmological constant through a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity is proposed. By utilizing non-minimal phantom or quintessence, the cosmological constant, which may be large originally, can be…
The cosmological constant problem is one of the long-standing issues of modern physics. While we can measure the value of the cosmological constant with great accuracy, we are not able to calculate it in a coherent theoretical framework. On…
Cosmological models can be studied effectively using dynamical systems techniques. Starting from Brown's formulation of the variational principle for relativistic fluids, we introduce new types of couplings involving a perfect fluid, a…
I try to revive, and possibly reconcile, a debate started a few years ago, about the relative roles of a bare cosmological constant and of a vacuum energy, by taking the attitude to try to get the most from the physics now available as…
It will be argued here that the cosmological constant problem exists because of the way the vacuum is defined in quantum field theory. It has been known for some time that for QFT to be gauge invariant certain terms--such as part of the…
A finite quantum gravity theory is used to resolve the cosmological constant problem. A fundamental quantum gravity scale, \Lambda_G \leq 10^{-3} eV, is introduced above which the quantum corrections to the vacuum energy density coupled to…
We show that scale invariance provides a solution to the fine tuning problem of the cosmological constant. We construct a generalization of the standard model of particle physics which displays exact quantum scale invariance. The matter…