Related papers: A cosmological constant from degenerate vacua
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…
Based on a thoeretical model in which scalar fields play crucial roles, we propose a mechanism to better understand a cosmological constant expected to be small (nearly comparable with the critical density) but nonzero as suggested strongly…
The condensed matter examples, in which the effective gravity appears in the low-energy corner as one of the collective modes of quantum vacuum, provide a possible answer to the question, why the vacuum energy is so small. This answer comes…
Physics invites the idea that space contains energy whose gravitational effect approximates that of Einstein's cosmological constant, Lambda; nowadays the concept is termed dark energy or quintessence. Physics also suggests the dark energy…
The cosmological constant is normally introduced as an additional term entering the Einstein-Hilbert (EH) action. In this letter we demonstrate that instead, it appears naturally from the standard EH action as an invariant term emerging…
The small or zero cosmological constant, $\Lambda$, probably results from a macroscopic cancellation mechanism of the zero-point energies. However, nearby horizon surfaces any macroscopic mechanism is expected to result in imperfect…
A probable solution of the cosmological constant problem was recently found. We propose that dark energy of the Universe is vacuum energy. Our Universe during its expansion is spending its vacuum energy for creation of new quantum states,…
It is well known that global symmetries protect local supersymmetry and a zero value for the cosmological constant in no--scale supergravity. A particular breakdown of these symmetries, which ensures the vanishing of the vacuum energy…
A consistency condition of general relativity as an effective field theory in Minkowskian background uniquely fixes the value of the cosmological constant. In two-loop calculations, including the interaction of gravitons with matter fields,…
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 gargantuan discrepancy between the value of the observed cosmological constant and that expected from the zero-point energy of known matter fields can be eliminated by supposing that on macroscopic scales the overwhelming majority of…
I describe an approach which connects classical gravity with the quantum microstructure of spacetime. The field equations arise from maximizing the density of states of matter plus geometry. The former is identified using the thermodynamics…
Witten has presented an argument for the vanishing of the cosmological constant in 2+1 dimensions. This argument is crucially tied to the specific properties of (2+1)-dimensional gravity. We argue that this reasoning can be deconstructed to…
An artificial scale of observable cosmological constant is dynamically related to its natural bare value due to an installation of relevant coherent state for the inflationary field in a finite volume of early Universe, because of…
We address the issue why a cosmological constant (dark energy) possesses a small positive value instead of being zero. Motivated by the cosmic landscape picture, we mimic the dark energy by a scalar field with potential wells and show that…
The problem of the physical nature and the cosmological genesis of Lambda-term is discussed. This problem can't be solved in terms of the current quantum field theory which operates with Higgs and non-perturbative vacuum condensates and…
The fluctuations of the vacuum energy are treated as a non-equilibrium process and a stochastic model for the cosmological constant is presented, which yields a natural explanation for the smallness or zero value of the constant in the…
The quest of a vanishing cosmological constant is considered in the simplest anomaly-free chiral gauge extension of the electroweak standard model where the new physics is limited to a well defined additional flavordynamics above the Fermi…
There is some evidence that the Universe is presently undergoing accelerating expansion. This has restored some credit to the scenarios with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. From the point of view of a theory of fundamental…
A spacetime-independent variable is introduced which characterizes a Lorentz-invariant self-sustained quantum vacuum. For a perfect (Lorentz-invariant) quantum vacuum, the self-tuning of this variable nullifies the effective energy density…