Related papers: Comments on the vacuum energy decay
I discuss empty space, as it appears in the physical foundations of relativistic field theories and in the semiclassical study of isolated systems. Of particular interest is the relationship between empirical measurements of the…
The replacement of the Poincar\'e-invariant Einstein special relativity by a de Sitter-invariant special relativity produces concomitant changes in all relativistic theories, including general relativity. A crucial change in the latter is…
We compute the vacuum polarization energies for a couple of soliton models in one space and one time dimensions. These solitons are mappings that connect different degenerate vacua. From the considered sample solitons we conjecture that the…
This paper explores infrared quantum effects in the de Sitter space. The notion of "eternal manifolds" is introduced and it is shown that in most cases the de Sitter space doesn't belong to this class. It is unstable under small…
Within the context of modified gravity and dark energy scenarios of the accelerating universe, we study the stability of de Sitter space with respect to inhomogeneous perturbations using a gauge-independent formalism. In modified gravity…
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…
We study the decay of the false vacuum in the regime where the quantum field theory analysis is not valid, since gravitational effects become important. This happens when the height of the barrier separating the false and the true vacuum is…
A simple description of the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) problem for non-experts is presented. Basic features of cosmology with non-zero vacuum energy are discussed. The astronomical data which indicate that the universe is filled…
We present a 4-dimensional back reaction analysis of de Sitter space for a conformally coupled scalar field in the presence of vacuum energy initialized in the Bunch-Davies vacuum. In contrast to the usual semi-classical prescription, as…
We present a manifestly local, diffeomorphism invariant and locally Poincare invariant formulation of vacuum energy sequestering. In this theory, quantum vacuum energy generated by matter loops is cancelled by auxiliary fields. The…
We consider the possibility of energy being exchanged between the scalar and matter fields in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Such an exchange provides a new mechanism which can drive variations in the gravitational 'constant' G. We find…
In hep-th/0506040 we discussed a classically constrained model of gravity. This theory contains known solutions of General Relativity (GR), and admits solutions that are absent in GR. Here we study cosmological implications of some of these…
The de Sitter conjecture yields a severe bound on possible vacua for a consistent quantum gravity. We extend the de Sitter conjecture by taking into account dynamics of the scalar field. We then apply such an extended de Sitter conjecture…
Some issues of the cosmological constant or dark energy are briefly reviewed. There are an increasing number of observations that constrain the equation of state of dark energy more stringently and favor the time-independent cosmological…
A special relativity based on the de Sitter group is introduced, which is the theory that might hold up in the presence of a non-vanishing cosmological constant. Like ordinary special relativity, it retains the quotient character of…
Proceeding from the new gravitation equations (Phys.Lett.A,v.156, p.404 (1991)) we argue that the theory in principle allows equilibrium stable configurations of a degenerate electron or neutron gas with very large masses.
We discuss the notion that quantum fields may induce an effective time-dependent cosmological constant which decays from a large initial value. It is shown that such cosmological models are viable in a non-de Sitter spacetime.
The positive energy theorems are a fundamental pillar in mathematical general relativity. Originally proved by Schoen-Yau and later Witten, these theorems were established for asymptotically flat manifolds where the metric tends to the…
A new approach to vacuum decay in quantum field theory, based on a simple variational formulation in field space using a tunneling potential, is ideally suited to study the effects of gravity on such decays. The method allows to prove in…
We analyze the dynamical implications of an exponential Lagrangian density for the gravitational field, as referred to an isotropic FRW Universe. Then, we discuss the features of the generalized deSitter phase, predicted by the new…