Related papers: Wormholes, a fluctuating cosmological constant and…
As shown in previous work, there is a well-defined nonperturbative gravitational path integral including an explicit sum over topologies in the setting of Causal Dynamical Triangulations in two dimensions. In this paper we derive a complete…
We propose an approach to explaining why naive large quantum fluctuations are not the right estimate for the cosmological constant. We argue that the universe is in a superposition of many vacua, in such a way that the resulting…
The problem of topology change transitions in quantum gravity is discussed. We argue that the contribution of the Giddings-Strominger wormhole to the Euclidean path integral is pure imaginary. This is checked by two techniques: by the…
In this paper we study the possibility of sustaining an evolving wormhole via exotic matter made of phantom energy in the presence of a cosmological constant. We derive analytical evolving wormhole geometries by supposing that the radial…
A central aspect of the cosmological constant problem is to understand why vacuum energy does not gravitate. In order to account for this observation, while allowing for nontrivial dynamics of the quantum vacuum, we motivate a novel…
We point out that the standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem itself is problematic since it is trying to apply the very large scale homogeneous cosmological model to very small (Planck) scale phenomenon. At small scales,…
The value of the cosmological constant is one of the major puzzles of modern cosmology: it is tiny but nonzero. Sorkin predicted, from the Causet approach to quantum gravity, that the cosmological constant has quantum fluctuations. The…
Topology change in quantum gravity is considered. An exact wave function of the Universe is calculated for topological Chern-Simons 2+1 dimensional gravity. This wave function occurs as the effect of a quantum anomaly which leads to the…
Three of the big puzzles of theoretical physics are the following: (i) There is apparently no time evolution in the dynamics of quantum general relativity, because the allowed quantum states must obey the Hamiltonian constraint. (ii) During…
In a previous work [1], it was speculated that the lack of homogeneity of the large-scale structure of the universe may be due to quantum fluctuations of space in the early universe. In [1], this was argued for a Friedmann-type universe for…
Perhaps standard effective field theory arguments are right, and vacuum fluctuations really do generate a huge cosmological constant. I show that if one does not assume homogeneity and an arrow of time at the Planck scale, a very large…
A generalisation of the asymptotic wormhole boundary condition for the case of spacetimes with a cosmological horizon is proposed. In particular, we consider de Sitter spacetime with small cosmological constant. The wave functions selected…
One way to explain the present acceleration of the Universe is Einstein's cosmological constant. It is quite likely, in view of some recent studies, that a time-dependent equation of state had caused the Universe to evolve from an earlier…
A gravitational scenario is proposed where the euclidean action is invariant under the isotropic and homogeneous version of the euclidean {\it U(1)} group of local transformations of the scale factor and scalar matter field, interpreting…
We consider implications of the microscopic dynamics of spacetime for the evolution of cosmological models. We argue that quantum geometry effects may lead to stochastic fluctuations of the gravitational constant, which is thus considered…
Naive calculations in quantum field theory suggest that vacuum fluctuations should induce an enormous cosmological constant. What if these estimates are right? I argue that even a huge cosmological constant might be hidden in Planck scale…
We advance the viewpoint that only relevant modes of the vacuum fluctuations, namely, with wavelengths conditioned by the size, homogeneity, geometry and topology of the Universe, do contribute into the cosmological constant. A formula is…
In this letter we point out the existence of solutions to General Relativity with a negative cosmological constant in four dimensions, which contain solitons as well as traversable wormholes. The latter connect two asymptotically locally…
First a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe filled with dust and a conformally invariant scalar field is quantized. For the closed model we find a discrete set of wormhole quantum states. In the case of flat spacelike sections we find…
The gargantuan discrepancy between the value of the observed cosmological constant and that expected from the zero-point energy of known matter fields can be eliminated by supposing that on macroscopic scales the overwhelming majority of…