Related papers: Quintessence, the Gravitational Constant, and Grav…
There has been much recent work on quantum inequalities to constrain negative energy. These are uncertainty principle-type restrictions on the magnitude and duration of negative energy densities or fluxes. We consider several examples of…
The regularized vacuum energy (or energy density) of a quantum field subjected to static external conditions is shown to satisfy a certain partial differential equation with respect to two variables, the mass and the "time" (ultraviolet…
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…
Quantum liquids, in which an effective Lorentzian metric and thus some kind of gravity gradually arise in the low-energy corner, are the objects where the problems related to the quantum vacuum can be investigated in detail. In particular,…
The stress-energy tensor of the quantum vacuum is studied for the particular case of quantum electrodynamics (QED), that is a fictituous universe where only the electromagnetic and the electron-positron fields exist. The integrals involved…
We consider cosmological implications of the formula for the dark energy density derived by Gurzadyan and Xue which predicts a value fitting the observational one. Cosmological models with varying by time physical constants, namely, speed…
We study late-time acceleration scenarios using a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive exponential expansion if not coupled with gravity. Upon…
The work investigate a static, isotropic and almost homogeneous Universe containing a real scalar field modeling the Dark-Energy (quintaessence) interacting with pressureless matter. It is argued that the interaction between matter and the…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universe is reconsidered and formally simplified by introducing new covariant and gauge-invariant variables with physical interpretations on…
Cosmic acceleration is explained quantitatively, as an apparent effect due to gravitational energy differences that arise in the decoupling of bound systems from the global expansion of the universe. "Dark energy" is a misidentification of…
It has recently been suggested that "gravity is the weakest force" in any theory with a suitable UV completion within quantum gravity. One formulation of this statement is the scalar weak gravity conjecture, which states that gravity is…
In the more recent literature on cosmological evolutions of the universe the cosmic vacuum energy has become a non-renouncable ingredient. The cosmological constant $\Lambda$, first invented by Einstein, but later also rejected by him,…
Here we discuss direct links of the number of fundamental dimensions to the fundamental natural constants using simple arguments of dimensional analysis \corr{based on Maxwell's dimensions length (L), time (T) and mass (M) as well as the…
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…
If the recent observations suggesting a time variation of the fine structure constant are correct, they imply the existence of an ultra light scalar particle. This particle inevitably couples to nucleons through the \alpha-dependence of…
The problem of the cosmic coincidence is a longstanding puzzle. This conundrum may be solved by introducing a coupling between the two dark sectors. In this Letter, we study a coupled quintessence scenario in which the scalar field evolves…
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…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is developed, based on an analogy with a superconducting phaseshift in which free fermions coupled perturbatively to a weak gravitational field are in an unstable false vacuum state. The…
A particular kind of quintessence is considered, with equation of motion $p_Q/\rho_Q = -1$, corresponding to a cosmological term with time-dependence $\Lambda(t) = \Lambda(t_0) (R(t_0)/R(t))^{P}$ which we examine initially for $0 \leq P <…
Neutrinos interacting with the quintessence field can trigger the accelerated expansion of the Universe. In such models with a growing neutrino mass the homogeneous cosmological solution is often unstable to perturbations. We present…