Related papers: Fluctuations, Ghosts, and the Cosmological Constan…
Matrix models of Yang-Mills type lead to an emergent gravity theory, which may not require fine-tuning of a cosmological constant. We find cosmological solutions of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker type. They generically have a big bounce, and an…
Quantum gravitational effects may induce stochastic fluctuations in the structure of space-time, to produce a characteristic foamy structure. It has been known for some time now that these fluctuations may have observable consequences for…
This paper presents a new, non-Gaussian formulation of stochastic gravity by incorporating the higher moments of the fluctuations of the quantum stress energy tensor for a free quantum scalar field in a consistent way. A scheme is developed…
We study the conditions under which thermal fluctuations generated in the contracting phase of a non-singular bouncing cosmology can lead to a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations at late times in the expanding phase. We…
A diverse set of observations now compellingly suggest that Universe possesses a nonzero cosmological constant. In the context of quantum-field theory a cosmological constant corresponds to the energy density of the vacuum, and the wanted…
Within the framework of the minimum quadratic Poincare gauge theory of gravity in the Riemann-Cartan spacetime we study the influence of gravitational vacuum energy density (a cosmological constant) on the dynamics of various gravitating…
The current observations seem to suggest that the universe has a positive cosmological constant of the order of $H_0^2$ while the most natural value for the cosmological constant will be $L_P^{-2}$ where $L_P = (G\hbar/c^3)^{1/2}$ is the…
The observational evidence for the existence of a non-zero cosmological constant is getting stronger. It is therefore timely to address the question of its eventual effect on the dynamics of galaxies, clusters and larger structures in the…
The cosmological constant problem and the compatibility of gravity with quantum mechanics are the two most pressing problems in all of gravitational theory. While string theory nicely addresses the latter, it has so far failed to provide…
A new model of oscillators was suggested, in which an oscillating particle in the minimum energy state has a nonzero velocity. A system consisting of a point material particle and a scalar field described by the nonlinear Klein-Gordon…
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…
The cosmological constant is treated as a thermodynamical parameter in the framework of two-dimensional dilaton gravity. We find that the cosmological constant behaves as a U(1) charge with a confining potential, and that such potentials…
We present the first steps needed for an analysis of the perturbations that occur in the cosmology associated with the conformal gravity theory. We discuss the implications of conformal invariance for perturbative coordinate gauge choices,…
Scale-invariant fluctuations and cold dark matter could originate from two different modes of a single scalar field, fluctuations from massless Goldstone oscillations and matter from massive Higgs modes. Matching the fluctuations and dark…
Cosmological perturbations in an expanding universe back-react on the space-time in which they propagate. Calculations to lowest non-vanishing order in perturbation theory indicate that super-Hubble-scale fluctuations act as a negative and…
The Cosmological Constant Problem is re-examined from an effective field theory perspective. While the connection between gravity and particle physics has not been experimentally probed in the quantum regime, it is severely constrained by…
The (old) cosmological constant problem consists of two different problems. The first is the huge discrepancy between the value of the cosmological constant deduced from observations and its value expected from cosmological constant-like…
Perturbation theory for gravity in dimensions greater than two requires higher derivatives in the free action. Higher derivatives seem to lead to ghosts, states with negative norm. We consider a fourth order scalar field theory and show…
Nearly seventy per cent of the energy density in the universe is unclustered and exerts negative pressure. This conclusion -- now supported by numerous observations -- poses the greatest challenge for theoretical physics today. I discuss…
We study cosmological perturbations for a ghost free massive gravity theory formulated with a dynamical extra metric that is needed to massive deform GR. In this formulation FRW background solutions fall in two branches. In the dynamics of…