Related papers: Vacuum in quantum liquids and in general relativit…
A constant (spacetime-independent) $q$-field may play a crucial role for the cancellation of Planck-scale contributions to the gravitating vacuum energy density. We now show that a small spacetime-dependent perturbation of the equilibrium…
In this colloquium-level account, I describe the cosmological constant problem: why is the energy of empty space at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it from the Standard Model of particle physics? I…
The cosmological constant problem is examined under the assumption that the extrinsic curvature of the space-time contributes to the vacuum. A compensation mechanism based on a variable cosmological term is proposed. Under a suitable…
An important yet perplexing result from work in the 90s and 00s is the near-unity value of the ratio of fluctuations in the vacuum energy density of quantum fields to the mean in a collection of generic spacetimes. This was done by way of…
We have found exact constant solutions for the cosmological density parameter using a generalization of general relativity that incorporates a cosmic time-variation of the velocity of light in vacuum and the Newtonian gravitation constant.…
We address issues on the origin of gravity and the cosmological constant problem based on a recent understanding about the correspondence between noncommutative field theory and gravity. We suggest that the cosmological constant problem can…
In this paper a framework is introduced to remove the huge discrepancy between the empirical value of the cosmological constant and the contribution to the cosmological constant predicted from the vacuum energy of quantum fields. An extra…
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…
An intriguing consequence of quantum field theory is that vacuum is not empty space; it is full of quantum fluctuating electromagnetic fields, or virtual photons, corresponding to their zero-point energy, even though the average number of…
At the level of the Planck scale, the spacetime metric has to be considered a quantum variable. Conformal quantum fluctuations of the metric tensor are studied here. They lead to an extra term in the Einstein equations which can be…
The Stringy Uncertainty relations, and corrections thereof, were explicitly derived recently from the New Relativity Principle that treats all dimensions and signatures on the same footing and which is based on the postulate that the Planck…
We propose an approach to explaining why naive large quantum fluctuations are not the right estimate for the cosmological constant. We argue that the universe is in a superposition of many vacua, in such a way that the resulting…
The old cosmological-constant (CC) problem indicates an inconsistency of the usual formulation of semiclassical gravity. The usual formulation of semiclassical gravity also seems to be inconsistent with the conventional interpretation of…
A key challenge for many quantum gravity approaches is to construct states that describe smooth geometries on large scales. Here we define a family of $(2+1)$-dimensional quantum gravity states which arise from curvature excitations…
The vacuum fluctuations of all quantum fields filling the universe are supposed to leave enormous energy and pressure contributions which are incompatible with observations. It has been recently suggested that, when the effective nature of…
The vacuum (Casimir) energy in quantum field theory is a problem relevant both to new nanotechnology devices and to dark energy in cosmology. The crucial question is the dependence of the energy on the system geometry under study. Despite…
The cosmological constant is one of the most pressing problems in modern physics. We address this issue from an emergent gravity standpoint, by using an analogue gravity model. Indeed, the dynamics of the emergent metric in a Bose-Einstein…
We provide an analytical solution to the quantum dynamics of a flat Friedmann-Lema\^itre- Robertson-Walker model with a massless scalar field in the presence of a small and positive cosmological constant, in the context of Loop Quantum…
We first review the cosmological constant problem, and then mention a conjecture of Feynman according to which the general relativistic theory of gravity should be reformulated in such a way that energy does not couple to gravity. We point…
An expanding universe is not expected to have a static vacuum energy density. The so-called cosmological constant $\Lambda$ should be an approximation, certainly a good one for a fraction of a Hubble time, but it is most likely a temporary…