Related papers: Consistency of Scalar Potentials from Quantum de S…
In the standard inflationary paradigm the inhomogeneities observed in the CMB arise from quantum fluctuations of an initially homogeneous and isotropic vacuum state. This picture suffers from two well-known weaknesses. First, it assumes…
We consider classically scale-invariant theories with non-minimally coupled scalar fields, where the Planck mass and the hierarchy of physical scales are dynamically generated. The classical theories possess a fixed point, where scale…
If a theory has more than one classically stable vacuum, quantum tunneling and thermal jumps make the transition between the vacua possible. The transition happens through a first order phase transition started by nucleation of a bubble of…
We discuss predictions for cosmology which result from the scaling solution of functional flow equations for a quantum field theory of gravity. A scaling solution is necessary to render quantum gravity renormalizable. Our scaling solution…
As a spacetime with compact spatial sections, de Sitter spacetime does not have a de Sitter-invariant ground state for a minimally-coupled massless scalar field that gives definite expectation values for any observables not invariant under…
We sketch the construction of a quantum model of 3 dimensional de Sitter space, based on the Covariant Entropy Principle and the observation that semi-classical physics suggests the possibility of a consistent theory of a finite number of…
This article aims at discussing the cosmological constant problem at a pedagogical but fully technical level. We review how the vacuum energy can be regularized in flat and curved space-time and how it can be understood in terms of Feynman…
Quantum transitions among de Sitter and Minkowski spacetimes through bubble nucleation are revisited using the Hamiltonian formalism. We interpret tunnelling probabilities as relative probabilities: the ratio of the squared wave functionals…
General covariant unimodular gravity frameworks, based on the Henneaux-Teitelboim formulation, are, in disguise, precisely $4$-form field theories corrected with higher dimension operators. In the presence of charged tensional membranes,…
The five dimensional stable de Sitter ground states in N=2 supergravity obtained by gauging SO(1,1) symmetry of the real symmetric scalar manifold (in particular a generic Jordan family manifold of the vector multiplets) simultaneously with…
We show that a positive cosmological constant is incompatible with the quantum-corpuscular resolution of de Sitter metric in form of a coherent state. The reason is very general and is due to the quantum self-destruction of the coherent…
The Euclidean or Bunch-Davies O(4,1) invariant 'vacuum' state of quantum fields in global de Sitter space is shown to be unstable to small perturbations, even for a massive free field with no self-interactions. There are perturbations of…
Flat cosmological models with a cosmological constant on the order of the Einstein-de Sitter critical density are enigmatic in the sense that there does not appear to be any natural explanation for why there should be a cosmological…
In this note we show that the cosmological domain wall and the de Sitter quantum breaking problems complement each other in theories with discrete symmetries that are spontaneously broken at low energies. Either the symmetry is exact and…
The quantum break-time of a system is the time-scale after which its true quantum evolution departs from the classical mean field evolution. For capturing it, a quantum resolution of the classical background - e.g., in terms of a coherent…
We provide an analytical solution to the quantum dynamics of a flat Friedmann-Lema\^itre- Robertson-Walker model with a massless scalar field in the presence of a small and positive cosmological constant, in the context of Loop Quantum…
We consider a minisuperspace model for a closed universe with small and positive cosmological constant, filled with a massive scalar field conformally coupled to gravity. In the quantum version of this model, the universe may undergo a…
It is shown how metastable de Sitter vacua might arise from heterotic M-theory. The balancing of its two non-perturbative effects, open membrane instantons against gaugino condensation on the hidden boundary, which act with opposing forces…
Quantum consistency suggests that any de Sitter patch that lasts a number of Hubble times that exceeds its Gibbons-Hawking entropy divided by the number of light particle species suffers an effect of quantum breaking. Inclusion of other…
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…