Related papers: Entropy Bounds and Dark Energy
The cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is a free parameter in Einstein's equations of gravity. We propose to fix its value with a boundary condition: test particles should be free when outside causal contact, e.g. at infinity. Under this…
Motivated by the cosmological constant and the coincidence problems, we consider a cosmological model where the cosmological constant $\Lambda_0$ is replaced by a cosmological term $\Lambda(t)$ which is allowed to vary in time. More…
The cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is usually interpreted as Dark Energy (DE) or modified gravity (MG). Here we propose instead that $\Lambda$ corresponds to a boundary term in the action of classical General Relativity. The action is zero…
The equation of state of dark energy is investigated to determine how much it may deviate from the equation of state of the cosmological constant (CC). Two aspects of the problem are studied: the "expansion" around the vacuum equation of…
It is demonstrated that entropy and its density play a significant role in solving the problem of the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) of the Universe and hence the dark energy problem. Taking this in mind, two most popular…
Although well motivated from theoretical arguments, the cosmological constant \emph{barrier}, i.e., the imposition that the equation-of-state parameter of dark energy ($\omega_x \equiv p_x/\rho_x$) is $\geq -1$, seems to introduce bias in…
We discuss how entropy bounds, which are not respected in the standard cosmology, constrain the parameters of a previously suggested cosmology with a finite total mass. In that alternative cosmology the matter density was postulated to be a…
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…
In this exploratory study, we investigate the bounds on the equation of state of dark matter. Modeling dark matter as a fluid component, we take into account both positive and negative fixed equations of state. Using CMB, supernovae Ia and…
We explore the properties of dark energy models for which the equation-of-state, w, defined as the ratio of pressure to energy density, crosses the cosmological-constant boundary w = -1. We adopt an empirical approach, treating the dark…
Within the $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model, the absolute value of Einstein's cosmological constant $\Lambda$, sometimes expressed as the gravitating mass-energy density $\rho_\Lambda$ of the physical vacuum, is a fundamental constant of…
The cosmological constant ($\Lambda$), i.e., the energy density stored in the true vacuum state of all existing fields in the Universe, is the simplest and the most natural possibility to describe the current cosmic acceleration. However,…
The cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is a measure of the energy density of the vacuum. Therefore properties of the energy of the system in the metastable vacuum state reflect properties of $\Lambda = \Lambda(t)$. We analyze properties of the…
The energy density of the vacuum, Lambda, is at least 60 orders of magnitude smaller than several known contributions to it. Approaches to this problem are tightly constrained by data ranging from elementary observations to precision…
The cosmological constant, which was introduced by Einstein a century ago to allow for a static universe, experienced a revival two decades ago under the label dark energy as a parameter to model the observed accelerated expansion of the…
We derive new limits on the value of the cosmological constant, $\Lambda$, based on the Einstein bending of light by systems where the lens is a distant galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. We use an amended lens equation in which the…
After a short history of the $\Lambda$-term it is explained why the (effective) cosmological constant is expected to obtain contributions from short-distance physics, corresponding to an energy at least as large as the Fermi scale. The…
In the action formalism variations of metric tensors usually are limited by the Hubble horizon. Contrary, variations of quantum fields should be extended up to the event horizon, which is the real boundary of the spacetime. As the result…
Motivated by some recent speculative attempts to model the dark energy, scalar fields with negative kinetic energy coupled to gravity without a cosmological constant are considered. It is shown that in the presence of an ordinary fluid, any…
The high-quality cosmological data, which became available in the last decade, have thrusted upon us a rather preposterous composition for the universe which poses one of the greatest challenges theoretical physics has ever faced: the…