Related papers: Comment on: "Possible Relation between the Cosmolo…
This is a review of the physics and cosmology of the cosmological constant. Focusing on recent developments, I present a pedagogical overview of cosmology in the presence of a cosmological constant, observational constraints on its…
With the beginning of the XXIst century, a physical model of our Universe, usually called the Standard Cosmological Model (SCM), is reaching an important level of consolidation, based on accurate astrophysical data and also on theoretical…
Anthropic solutions to the cosmological constant problem require seemingly unnatural scalar field potentials with a very small slope or domain walls (branes) with a very small coupling to a four-form field. Here we introduce a class of…
We examine a simple theoretical model to estimate (by fine tuning condition) the value of the cosmological constant. We assume, in analogy with holographic principle, that cosmological constant, like classical surface tension coefficient in…
In the framework of the recently proposed asymptotically finite gauge models the cosmological constant is essentially weakened by quantum effects. The next (and more general) claim is that the coupling between quantum fields may suppress…
The main consequences of de Sitter Special Relativity to the Standard Cosmological Model of Physical Cosmology are examined. The cosmological constant Lambda appears, in this theory, as a manifestation of the proper conformal current, which…
A simple model is introduced in which the cosmological constant is interpreted as a true Casimir effect on a scalar field filling the universe (e.g. $\mathbf{R} \times \mathbf{T}^p\times \mathbf{T}^q$, $\mathbf{R} \times \mathbf{T}^p\times…
We introduce the notion of the cosmic numbers of a cosmological model, and discuss how they can be used to naturally classify models according to their ability to solve some of the problems of the standard cosmological model.
We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient…
In quantum field theory the parameters of the vacuum action are subject to renormalization group running. In particular, the ``cosmological constant'' is not a constant in a quantum field theory context, still less should be zero. In this…
We argue that, when a theory of gravity and matter is endowed with (classical) conformal symmetry, the fine tuning required to obtain the cosmological constant at its observed value can be significantly reduced. Once tuned, the cosmological…
This paper examines a cosmological model of scale-dependent gravity. The gravitational action is taken to be the Einstein-Hilbert term supplemented with a cosmological constant, where the couplings, $G_k$ and $\Lambda_k$, run with the…
We investigate the perihelion shift of the planetary motion and the bending of starlight in the Schwarzschild field modified by the presence of a $\Lambda$-term plus a conical defect. This analysis generalizes an earlier result obtained by…
The standard model of modern cosmology provides a description of a wide range of astrophysical and astronomical data. However, despite this impressive success, several discrepancies have have persisted. Most strikingly, the emerging tension…
This is a new review article for The Review of Particle Physics 2004 (aka the Particle Data Book). It forms a compact review of knowledge of the cosmological parameters as at the end of 2003. Topics included are Parametrizing the Universe;…
Recently, a new framework for describing the multiverse has been proposed which is based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The framework allows for well-defined predictions, both regarding global properties of the universe and…
We present a new solution to the cosmological constant (CC) and coincidence problems in which the observed value of the CC, $\Lambda$, is linked to other observable properties of the universe. This is achieved by promoting the CC from a…
In the context of the averaging problem in relativistic cosmology, we provide a key to the interpretation of cosmological parameters by taking into account the actual inhomogeneous geometry of the Universe. We discuss the relation between…
The observed value of the cosmological constant corresponds to a time scale that is very close to the current conformal age of the universe. Here we show that this is not a coincidence but is caused by a periodic boundary condition, which…
The observed value of the cosmological constant poses large theoretical problems. We find that topology of the Universe provides a natural source for it. Restricting dynamically an Einstein-Cartan gravity to General Relativity in our…