Related papers: False vacuum as an unstable state: possible cosmol…
It is found that the existence of spacetime foam leads to a situation in which the number of fundamental quantum bosonic fields is a variable quantity. The general aspects of an exact theory that allows for a variable number of fields are…
A new quantum effect connected with the late time behavior of decaying states is described and its possible observational consequences are analyzed: It is shown that charged unstable particles as well as neutral unstable particles with…
Quantum field theory allows for the suppression of vacuum fluctuations, leading to sub-vacuum phenomena. One of these is the appearance of local negative energy density. Selected aspects of negative energy will be reviewed, including the…
Assuming the existence of a scalar field which undergoes "ghost condensation" and which has a suitably chosen potential, it is possible to obtain a non-singular bouncing cosmology in the presence of regular matter and radiation. The…
The problem of cosmological constant and vacuum energy is usually thought of as the subject of general relativity. However, the vacuum energy is important for the Universe even in the absence of gravity, i.e. in the case when the Newton…
The principles of General Relativity allow for a non-vanishing cosmological constant, which can possibly be interpreted at least partially in terms of quantum-fluctuations of matter fields. Depending on sign and magnitude it can cause…
An speculative solution for the cosmological constant problem is proposed. It is argued that while the true quantum vacuum energy density is of the order of $M_P^4$, the observed classical vacuum energy density may be much smaller due to…
We investigate cosmological models with a linear inhomogeneous time-dependent equation of state for the dark energy, coupled with dark matter, leading to a bounce cosmology. Equivalent descriptions in terms of the equation-of-state…
A static non-singular 10-dimensional closed Friedmann universe of Planck size, filled with a perfect fluid with an equation of state with w = -2/3, can arise spontaneously by a quantum fluctuation from nothing in 11-dimensional spacetime. A…
We study the dynamics of states perturbatively expanded about a harmonic system of loop quantum cosmology, exhibiting a bounce. In particular, the evolution equations for the first and second order moments of the system are analyzed. These…
We show that the presence of a temporal electromagnetic field on cosmological scales generates an effective cosmological constant which can account for the accelerated expansion of the universe. Primordial electromagnetic quantum…
We consider the classical linear stability of a static universe filled with a non-interacting mixture of isotropic radiation and a ghost scalar field. Unlike the conventional Einstein static model, this cosmology is stable against…
The idea of the quantum state of the Universe described by some density matrix, i.e mixture of at least two vacua, the trivial symmetric and the nontrivial one with spontaneously broken symmetry is discussed. Nonzero cosmological constant…
The physical Hamiltonian of a gravity-matter system depends on the choice of time, with the vacuum naturally identified as its ground state. We study the expanding universe with scalar field in the volume time gauge. We show that the vacuum…
A hierarchically small weak scale does not generally coincide with enhanced symmetry, but it may still be exceptional with respect to vacuum energy. By analyzing the classical vacuum energy as a function of parameters such as the Higgs…
Within conventional big bang cosmology, it has proven to be very difficult to understand why today's cosmological constant is so small. In this paper, we show that a cyclic model of the universe can naturally incorporate a dynamical…
We study long-range interacting systems driven by external stochastic forces that act collectively on all the particles constituting the system. Such a scenario is frequently encountered in the context of plasmas, self-gravitating systems,…
Bouncing models have been proposed by many authors as a completion, or even as an alternative to inflation for the description of the very early and dense Universe. However, most bouncing models contain a contracting phase from a very large…
The existence of phase-separated states is an essential feature of infinite-volume systems with a thermal, first-order phase transition. At energies between those at which the phase transition takes place, equilibrium homogeneous states are…
The physics of many closed, conservative systems can be described by both classical and quantum theories. The dynamics according to classical theory is symplectic and admits linear instabilities which would initially seem at odds with a…