Related papers: Weighing the Vacuum Energy
The vacuum energy is computed for a scalar field in a noncommutative background in several models of noncommutative geometry. One may expect that the noncommutativity introduces a natural cutoff on the ultraviolet divergences of field…
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 vacuum energy is calculated for a free, conformally-coupled scalar field on the orbifold space-time \R$\times \S^2/\Gamma$ where $\Gamma$ is a finite subgroup of O(3) acting with fixed points. The energy vanishes when $\Gamma$ is…
We define the notion of energy, and compute its values, for gravitational systems involving terms quadratic in curvature. While our construction parallels that of ordinary Einstein gravity, there are significant differences both…
Observers at rest in a stationary spacetime flat at infinity can measure small amounts of rest-mass+internal energies+kinetic energies+pressure energy in a small volume of fluid attached to a local inertial frame. The sum of these small…
The vacuum energy of a conformally coupled scalar field on the d-dimensional sphere is calculated. On even spheres it is zero and on odd spheres it oscillates in sign. Results for the d-torus and d-cube are also given.
We compute the vacuum energy of three-dimensional asymptotically flat space based on a Chern-Simons formulation for the Poincare group. The equivalent action is nothing but the Einstein-Hilbert term in the bulk plus half of the…
We study the properties of a class of quantum field theories endowed with an equal number of anti commuting and commuting field variables, the most common example being the supersymmetric models. Based on the scaling properties of the…
Vacuum energy in quantum field theory, being the sum of zero-point energies of all field modes, is formally infinite but yet, after regularization or renormalization, can give rise to finite observable effects. One way of understanding how…
We present a method to calculate the gravitational energy when asymptotic boundary conditions for the space-time are not given. This is the situation for most of the cosmological models. The expression for the gravitational energy is…
There appears to be three, perhaps related, ways of approaching the nature of vacuum energy . The first is to say that it is just the lowest energy state of a given, usually quantum, system. The second is to equate vacuum energy with the…
We discuss the main myths related to the vacuum energy and cosmological constant, such as: ``unbearable lightness of space-time''; the dominating contribution of zero point energy of quantum fields to the vacuum energy; non-zero vacuum…
It is suggested that the vacuum expectation of the quantum vacuum energy-momentum is zero, but quantum fluctuations give rise to a space-time curvature equivalent to that of a cosmological constant or dark energy. Calculations within…
We define and compute the energy of higher curvature gravity theories in arbitrary dimensions. Generically, these theories admit constant curvature vacua (even in the absence of an explicit cosmological constant), and asymptotically…
Static observers remain on Killing-vector world lines and measure the rest-mass+kinetic energies of particles moving past them, and the flux of that mechanical energy through space and time. The total mechanical energy is the total flux…
We describe a link between the cosmological constant problem and the problem of time in quantum gravity. This arises by examining the relationship between the cosmological constant and vacuum energy in light of non-perturbative formulations…
We study gravitational properties of vacuum energy by erecting a geometry on the stress-energy tensor of vacuum, matter and radiation. Postulating that the gravitational effects of matter and radiation can be formulated by an appropriate…
The failure to calculate the vacuum energy is a central problem in theoretical physics. Presumably the problem arises from the insistent use of effective field theory reasoning in a context that is well beyond its intended scope. If one…
In the framework of an effective field theory of general relativity a model of scalar and vector bosons interacting with the metric field is considered. It is shown in the framework of a two-loop order calculation that for the cosmological…
We calculate, in a class of Gauge invariant functionals, by variational methods, the difference of vacuum energy between two different backgrounds: Schwarzschild and Flat Space. We perform this evaluation in an Hamiltonian formulation of…