Related papers: A Quantum-Mechanical Mechanism for Reducing the Co…
We revisit a scenario in which the cosmological constant is cancelled by the potential energy of a slowly evolving scalar field, or "cosmon". The cosmon's evolution is tied to the cosmological constant by a feedback mechanism. This feedback…
The quantization of Einstein-Maxwell theory with a cosmological constant is considered. We obtain all logarithmically divergent terms in the one-loop effective action that involve only the background electromagnetic field. This includes…
We show that D-dimensional de Sitter space is unstable to the nucleation of non-singular geometries containing spacetime regions with different numbers of macroscopic dimensions, leading to a dynamical mechanism of compactification. These…
Group field theory (GFT) models for quantum gravity coupled to a massless scalar field give rise to cosmological models that reproduce the (expanding or contracting) dynamics of homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes in general relativity at…
In this paper we study a new symmetry argument that results in a vacuum state with strictly vanishing vacuum energy. This argument exploits the well-known feature that de Sitter and Anti- de Sitter space are related by analytic…
We examine the descent via membrane nucleation through a landscape of vacua where the cosmological constant is given by a combination of four-form fluxes. It has been shown that this descent can be slowed exponentially for very low…
After a brief outlook of the dynamic quantization method and application of the method to gravity the idea of natural solution of cosmological constant problem in inflating Universe is presented.
A finite and unitary nonlocal formulation of quantum gravity is applied to the cosmological constant problem. The entire functions in momentum space at the graviton-standard model particle loop vertices generate an exponential suppression…
A spacetime-independent variable is introduced which characterizes a Lorentz-invariant self-sustained quantum vacuum. For a perfect (Lorentz-invariant) quantum vacuum, the self-tuning of this variable nullifies the effective energy density…
I argue that a solution to the cosmological constant problem is to assume that the expectation value of the quantum vacuum stress-energy tensor is proportional to the metric tensor with a negative energy density and positive pressure. This…
We study cosmological solutions to the low-energy effective action of heterotic string theory including possible leading order $\alpha'$ corrections and a potential for the dilaton. We consider the possibility that including such stringy…
If we want to explain the recently discovered accelerated stage of the universe, one of the option we have is to modify the Einstein tensor. The simplest such modification, in agreement with all observations, is the positive cosmological…
This work applies the formalism developed in our earlier paper to de Sitter space. After exactly solving the relevant Heisenberg equations of motion we give a detailed discussion of the subtleties associated with defining physical states…
We study the role of the cosmological constant (CC) as a component of dark energy (DE). It is argued that the cosmological term is in general unavoidable and it should not be ignored even when dynamical DE sources are considered. From the…
We propose a novel explanation for the smallness of the observed cosmological constant (CC). Regions of space with a large CC are short lived and are dynamically driven to crunch soon after the end of inflation. Conversely, regions with a…
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…
It is known that the cosmological constant can be dynamically tuned to an arbitrary small value in classes of scalar tensor theories. The trouble with such schemes is that effective gravity itself vanishes. We explore the possibility of…
We consider a quantum scalar field in a classical (Euclidean) De Sitter background, whose radius is fixed dynamically by Einstein's equations. In the case of a free scalar, it has been shown by Becker and Reuter that if one regulates the…
We discuss a mechanism that induces a time-dependent vacuum energy on cosmological scales. It is based on the instability induced renormalization triggered by the low energy quantum fluctuations in a Universe with a positive cosmological…
We study gravity coupled to a cosmological constant and a scale but not conformally invariant sector. In Minkowski vacuum, scale invariance is spontaneously broken. We consider small fluctuations around the Minkowski vacuum. At the…