Related papers: A Lapse in the Cosmological Constant Problem
The (old) cosmological constant problem consists of two different problems. The first is the huge discrepancy between the value of the cosmological constant deduced from observations and its value expected from cosmological constant-like…
We construct a model in which the cosmological constant is canceled from the gravitational equations of motion. Our model relies on two key ingredients: a nonlocal constraint on the action, which forces the spacetime average of the…
The cosmological constant problem represents a profound conflict between quantum field theory and general relativity. Unimodular gravity offers a compelling starting point by de-gravitating the vacuum energy of the Standard Model, but this…
We show that the cosmological constant appears as a Lagrange multiplier if nature is described by a canonical noncommutative spacetime. It is thus an arbitrary parameter unrelated to the action and thus to vacuum fluctuations. The…
The cosmological constant, i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However, despite its…
Horava and Melby-Thompson recently proposed a new version of the Horava-Lifshitz theory of gravity, in which the spin-0 graviton is eliminated by introducing a Newtonian pre-potential $\phi$ and a local U(1) gauge field $A$. In this paper,…
The idea that the cosmological term, Lambda, should be a time dependent quantity in cosmology is a most natural one. It is difficult to conceive an expanding universe with a strictly constant vacuum energy density, namely one that has…
A mechanism is introduced to reduce a large cosmological constant to a sufficiently small value consistent with observational upper limit. The basic ingradient in this mechanism is a distinction which has been made between the two unit…
The paper deals with the scale discrepancy between the observed vacuum energy in cosmology and the theoretical quantum vacuum energy (cosmological constant problem). Here, we demonstrate that Einstein's equation and an analogy to particle…
We define `third derivative' General Relativity, by promoting the integration measure in Einstein-Hilbert action to be an arbitrary $4$-form field strength. We project out its local fluctuations by coupling it to another $4$-form field…
In the non-relativistic theory of gravity recently proposed by Horava, the Hamiltonian constraint is not satisfied locally at each point in space. The absence of the local Hamiltonian constraint allows the system to have an extra…
We review recent attempts to address the cosmological constant problem and the late-time acceleration of the Universe based on braneworld models. In braneworld models, the way in which the vacuum energy gravitates in the 4D spacetime is…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is developed, based on an analogy with a superconducting phaseshift in which free fermions coupled perturbatively to a weak gravitational field are in an unstable false vacuum state. The…
We outline a program with the potential to solve both the cosmological constant and quantum gravity problems within a single, comprehensive framework, one that is formulated entirely in four spacetime dimensions. The program is based on an…
We consider a recent proposal to solve the cosmological constant problem within the context of brane world scenarios with infinite volume extra dimensions. In such theories bulk can be supersymmetric even if brane supersymmetry is…
Observations indicate that our universe is characterized by a late-time accelerating phase, possibly driven by a cosmological constant $\Lambda$, with the dimensionless parameter $\Lambda L_P^2 \simeq 10^{-122}$, where $L_P = (G \hbar…
We present a model in which the cosmological constant emerges as a purely geometric effect from the four-dimensional compactification of five-dimensional Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity. The compactification of the extra dimension generates…
General Relativity receives quantum corrections relevant at macroscopic distance scales and near event horizons. These arise from the conformal scalar degrees of freedom in the extended effective field theory of gravity generated by the…
When the cosmological constant of spacetime is derived from the 5D induced-matter theory of gravity, we show that a simple gauge transformation changes it to a variable measure of the vacuum which is infinite at the big bang and decays to…
In a recent paper (Vigoureux et al. Int. J. Theor. Phys. 47:928, 2007) it has been suggested that the velocity of light and the expansion of the universe are two aspects of one single concept connecting space and time in the expanding…