Related papers: Is the Cosmological Constant Non-Zero?
This talk describes an analytic calculation of the position of the first accoustic peak as a function of the matter density and the cosmological constant (work with Y.J. Ng and R. Rohm), agreeing with independent numerical studies. There is…
A diverse set of observations now compellingly suggest that Universe possesses a nonzero cosmological constant. In the context of quantum-field theory a cosmological constant corresponds to the energy density of the vacuum, and the wanted…
The purpose of the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) experiments is to measure the temperature anisotropy via the autocorrelation function. The partial wave $l_1$ corresponding to the first Doppler peak caused by baryon-photon oscillations…
We explore the effects of a positive cosmological constant on astrophysical and cosmological configurations described by a polytropic equation of state. We derive the conditions for equilibrium and stability of such configurations and…
Recent astrophysical observations seem to indicate that the cosmological constant is small but nonzero and positive. The old cosmological constant problem asks why it is so small; we must now ask, in addition, why it is nonzero (and is in…
We consider a possibility that the cosmological constant may not be a constant, but a free thermodynamical variable. To this end we construct a microscopic model of a spacelike two-sphere just inside of the cosmological horizon of the de…
One hope to solve the cosmological constant problem is to identify a symmetry principle, based on which the cosmological constant can be reduced either to zero, or to a tiny value. Here, we note that requiring that the vacuum state is…
We discuss how we remove a huge discrepancy between the theory of a cosmological constant, due to the zero-point energies of matter fields, and the observation. The technique of dimensional regularization plays a decisive role. We…
We work in the framework of a simple vector-tensor theory. The parametrized post-Newtonian approximation of this theory is identical to that of general relativity. Our attention is focused on cosmology. In an homogeneous isotropic universe,…
In this article the cosmological constant problems, as well as the astronomical evidence for a cosmologically significant homogeneous exotic energy density with negative pressure (quintessence), are reviewed for a broad audience of…
The old cosmological constant problem is to understand why the vacuum energy is so small; the new problem is to understand why it is comparable to the present mass density. Several approaches to these problems are reviewed. Quintessence…
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…
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…
The value of the cosmological constant arising from a crystalline model for vacuum cosmic space with lattice parameter of the order of the neutron radius [1] has been calculated. The model allows to solve, in an easy way, the problem of the…
We present limits on the cosmological constant from the statistics of gravitational lenses using newly completed quasar surveys, new lens data, and a range of lens models. The formal limit is $\lambda_0 < 0.66$ at 95\% confidence in flat…
For general number of spatial dimensions we investigate the cosmological dynamics driven by a cosmological constant and by a source with barotropic equation of state. It is assumed that for both those sources the energy density can be…
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…
Most of the calculations done to obtain the value of the cosmological constant use methods of quantum gravity, a theory that has not been established as yet, and a variety of results are usually obtained. The numerical value of the…
The observational evidence for the existence of a non-zero cosmological constant is getting stronger. It is therefore timely to address the question of its eventual effect on the dynamics of galaxies, clusters and larger structures in the…
Some form of missing energy may account for the difference between the observed cosmic matter density and the critical density. Two leading candidates are a cosmological constant and quintessence (a time-varying, inhomogenous component with…