Related papers: Resolving the Cosmological Missing Energy Problem
This paper deals with the cancellation mechanism, which identifies the energy density of space-time expansion in an empty universe with the zero-point energy density and avoids the scale discrepancy with the observed energy density…
The cosmological constant (CC) term in Einstein's equations, Lambda, was first associated to the idea of vacuum energy density. Notwithstanding, it is well-known that there is a huge, in fact appalling, discrepancy between the theoretical…
Current cosmological data puts increasing pressure on models of dark energy in the freezing class, e.g. early dark energy or those with equation of state $w$ substantially different from $-1$. We investigate to what extent data will…
Cosmic acceleration is explained quantitatively, purely in general relativity, as an apparent effect due to quasilocal gravitational energy differences that arise in the decoupling of bound systems from the global expansion of the universe.…
We study cosmological perturbations in the context of an interacting dark energy model, in which the cosmological term decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, with concomitant matter production. A previous joint analysis of the…
Observations suggest that nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and exerts negative pressure. Theoretical understanding of this component (`dark energy'), which is driving an accelerated expansion of…
A huge amount of good quality astrophysical data converges towards the picture of a spatially flat universe undergoing the today observed phase of accelerated expansion. This new observational trend is commonly addressed as Precision…
In the past years 'quintessence' models have been considered which can produce the accelerated expansion in the universe suggested by recent astronomical observations. One of the key differences between quintessence and a cosmological…
Observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) together with weak lensing measurements of the clustering of large scale cosmological structures and local measurements of the Hubble constant pose a challenge to the standard…
We investigate the possibility of using cosmological observations to probe and constrain an imperfect dark energy fluid. We consider a general parameterization of the dark energy component accounting for an equation of state, speed of sound…
After a short history of the $\Lambda$-term it is explained why the (effective) cosmological constant is expected to obtain contributions from short-distance-physics, corresponding to an energy scale of at least 100 GeV. The actual tiny…
We compare quantum hydrodynamics and quantum gravity. They share many common features. In particular, both have quadratic divergences, and both lead to the problem of the vacuum energy, which in the quantum gravity transforms to the…
We examine the possibility that a significant component of the energy density of the universe has an equation-of-state different from that of matter, radiation or cosmological constant ($\Lambda$). An example is a cosmic scalar field…
The cosmological constant problem is the principal obstacle in the attempt to interpret dark energy as the quantum vacuum energy. We suggest that the obstacle can be removed, i.e. that the cosmological constant problem can be resolved by…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly and indirectly from a large body of observational evidence. The simplest and most theoretically appealing possibility is the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant).…
There is mounting observational evidence that the expansion of our Universe is undergoing a late-time acceleration. Among many proposals to describe this phenomenon, the cosmological constant seems to be the simplest and the most natural…
A six parameter cosmological model, involving a vacuum energy density that is extremely tiny compared to fundamental particle physics scales, describes a large body of increasingly accurate astronomical data. In a first part of this brief…
We study a uniform and isotropic cosmology with a decaying vacuum energy density, in the realm of a model with a time varying gravitational "constant". We show that, for late times, such a cosmology is in accordance with the observed values…
The idea of the quantum state of the Universe described by some density matrix, i.e mixture of at least two vacua, the trivial symmetric and the nontrivial one with spontaneously broken symmetry is discussed. Nonzero cosmological constant…
In the near future, observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies will provide accurate determinations of many fundamental cosmological parameters. In this paper, we analyse degeneracies among cosmological parameters to…