Related papers: Vacuum Energy: If Not Now, Then When?
The quantum field theoretic prediction for the vacuum energy density leads to a value for the effective cosmological constant that is incorrect by between 60 to 120 orders of magnitude. We review an old proposal of replacing Einstein's…
In this article we describe a model of the universe consisting of a mixture of the ordinary matter and a so-called cosmic quaternionic field. The basic idea here consists in an attempt to interpret $\Lambda$ as the energy density of the…
The consideration of dark energy's quanta, required also by thermodynamics, introduces its chemical potential into the cosmological equations. Isolating its main contribution, we obtain solutions with dark energy decaying to matter or…
We investigate cosmological solutions of Brans-Dicke theory with both the vacuum energy density and the gravitational constant decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter. A particular class of them, with constant deceleration factor, sheds…
We investigate the possibility of replacing the cosmological constant with gradual condensation of a scalar field produced during the decay of a superheavy dark matter. The advantage of this class of models to the ordinary quintessence is…
A web of interlocking observations has established that the expansion of the Universe is speeding up and not slowing, revealing the presence of some form of repulsive gravity. Within the context of general relativity the cause of cosmic…
One of the puzzles of the dark energy problem is the (first) cosmological coincidence problem, namely, {\em why does our universe begin the accelerated expansion recently? why are we living in an epoch in which the dark energy density and…
In present paper the gravitational effect of spontaneous symmetry breaking vacuum energy density is investigated by subtracting the flat space-time contribution from the energy in the curved space-time. We found that the remain effective…
The failure to calculate the vacuum energy is a central problem in theoretical physics. Presumably the problem arises from the insistent use of effective field theory reasoning in a context that is well beyond its intended scope. If one…
The cosmological constant is not an absolute constant. The gravitating part of the vacuum energy is adjusted to the energy density of matter and to other types of the perturbations of the vacuum. We discuss how the vacuum energy responds…
The homogeneous expansion history H(z) of our universe measures only kinematic variables, but cannot fix the underlying dynamics driving the recent acceleration: cosmographic measurements of the homogeneous universe, are consistent with…
The discovery ten years ago that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating put in place the present cosmological model, in which the Universe is composed of 4% baryons, 20% dark matter, and 76% dark energy. Yet the underlying cause of…
I try to revive, and possibly reconcile, a debate started a few years ago, about the relative roles of a bare cosmological constant and of a vacuum energy, by taking the attitude to try to get the most from the physics now available as…
Within present constraints on the observed smooth energy and its equation of state parameter, it is important to find out whether the smooth energy is static (cosmological constant) or dynamic (quintessence). The most dynamical quintessence…
An isotropic and homogeneous cosmological model with a source of dark energy is studied. That source is simulated with a viscous relativistic fluid with minimal causal correction. In this model the restrictions on the parameters coming from…
A `quantum inequality' (a conjectured relation between the energy density of a free quantum field and the time during which this density is observed) has recently been used to rule out some of the macroscopic wormholes and warp drives. I…
We consider the possibility that the total dark energy (DE) of the Universe is made out of two dynamical components of different nature: a variable cosmological term, Lambda, and a dynamical ``cosmon'', X, possibly interacting with Lambda…
In the context of models where the dark energy density $\rD$ is a random variable, anthropic selection effects may explain both the "old" cosmological constant problem and the "time coincidence". We argue that this type of solution to both…
The energy density associated with Planck length is $\rho_{uv}\propto L_P^{-4}$ while the energy density associated with the Hubble length is $\rho_{ir}\propto L_H^{-4}$ where $L_H=1/H$. The observed value of the dark energy density is…
It is extraordinary that a number of observations indicate that we live in a spatially flat, low matter density Universe, which is currently undergoing a period of accelerating expansion. The effort to explain this current state has focused…