Related papers: Why Does Gravity Ignore the Vacuum Energy?
In this essay we offer a comprehensible overview of the gravitational aether scenario. This is a possible extension of Einstein's theory of relativity to the quantum regime via an effective approach. Quantization of gravity usually faces…
It will be argued here that the cosmological constant problem exists because of the way the vacuum is defined in quantum field theory. It has been known for some time that for QFT to be gauge invariant certain terms--such as part of the…
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…
An alternative, scalar theory of gravitation has been proposed, based on a mechanism/interpretation of gravity as being a pressure force: Archimedes' thrust. In it, the gravitational field affects the physical standards of space and time,…
We derive a generic identity which holds for the metric (i.e. variational) energy-momentum tensor under any field transformation in any generally covariant classical Lagrangian field theory. The identity determines the conditions under…
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…
We construct a manifestly Machian theory of gravitation on the foundation that information in the universe cannot be destroyed (Landauer's principle). If no bit of information in the Universe is lost, than the sum of the entropies of the…
The Poincare Gauge Theory of gravitation with a Lagrangian quadratic in the field strengths is applied to a classical cosmological model. It predicts a constant value of the non-riemannian curvature scalar, which acts as a cosmological…
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…
The cosmological constant and its phenomenology remain among the greatest puzzles in theoretical physics. We review how modifications of Einstein's general relativity could alleviate the different problems associated with it that result…
This research is an extension of the author's article \cite{zar}, in which conformally invariant generalization of string theory was suggested to higher-dimensional objects. Special cases of the proposed theory are Einstein's theory of…
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…
In contrast to electrodynamics, Einstein's gravitation equations are not invariant with respect to a wide class of the mapping of field variables which leave equations of motion of test particles in a given coordinate system invariant. It…
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…
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…
This work places the invariant $ds^2$ at the center of the gravitational interaction, interpreting it not as a purely geometric object but as the differential of proper time, endowed with direct physical meaning. Starting from the extension…
The $f(R,T)$ gravity is a theory whose gravitational action depends arbitrarily on the Ricci scalar, $R$, and the trace of the stress-energy tensor, $T$; its field equations also depend on matter Lagrangian, $\mathcal{L}_{m}$. In the…
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…
We propose that gravity be intrinsically quantum-mechanical, so that in the absence of quantum mechanics the geometry of the universe would be Minkowski. We show that in such a situation gravity does not require any independent quantization…
The problem of cosmological constant and vacuum energy is usually thought of as the subject of general relativity. However, the vacuum energy is important for the Universe even in the absence of gravity, i.e. in the case when the Newton…