Related papers: String Phenomenology and the Cosmological Constant
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…
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important…
The issue of the cosmological constant is discussed in details and a solution to the problem is suggested.
Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects which could have been formed in the early stages of our Universe. They triggered a lot of interest, mainly for their cosmological implications: they could offer an alternative to…
I discuss how anomalies affect classical symmetries and how, in turn, the non-trivial nature of the gauge theory vacuum makes these quantum corrections troublesome. Although no solution seems in sight for the cosmological constant problem,…
In the framework of the recently proposed asymptotically finite gauge models the cosmological constant is essentially weakened by quantum effects. The next (and more general) claim is that the coupling between quantum fields may suppress…
It is known that Vilenkin's phenomenological equation of state for static straight cosmic strings is inconsistent with Brans-Dicke theory. We will prove that, in the presence of a cosmological constant, this equation of state is consistent…
Brane worlds are theories with extra spatial dimensions in which ordinary matter is localized on a (3+1) dimensional submanifold. Such theories could have interesting consequences for particle physics and gravitational physics. In this…
We point out several subtleties arising in brane-world scenarios of cosmological constant cancellation. We show that solutions with curvature singularities are inconsistent, unless the contribution to the effective four-dimentional…
One of the most disturbing difficulties in thinking about the cosmological constant is that it is not stable under radiative corrections. The feedback mechanism proposed in [hep-th/0306108] is a dynamical way to protect a zero or small…
At the level of the Planck scale, the spacetime metric has to be considered a quantum variable. Conformal quantum fluctuations of the metric tensor are studied here. They lead to an extra term in the Einstein equations which can be…
The decay constant of the QCD axion is required by observation to be small compared to the Planck scale. In theories of "natural inflation," and certain proposed anthropic solutions of the cosmological constant problem, it would be…
The Standard Model of particle physics and the theory of General Relativity (GR) currently provide a good description of almost all phenomena of particle physics and gravitation that have received controlled experimental tests. However, the…
With no free parameter (except the string scale $M_S$), dynamical flux compactification in Type IIB string theory determines both the cosmological constant (vacuum energy density) $\Lambda$ and the Planck mass $M_P$ in terms of $M_S$, thus…
We examine, in the context of certain string compactifications resulting in five dimensional brane worlds the mechanisms of (self) tuning of the cosmological constant and the recovery of standard cosmological evolution. We show that self…
We study the cosmological constant problem in a three-dimensional N=2 supergravity theory with gauge group SU[2]_{global}xU[1]_{local}. The model we consider is known to admit string-like configurations, the so-called semi-local cosmic…
We consider the standard model with local scale invariance. The theory shows exact scale invariance of dimensionally regulated action. We show that massless gauge fields, which may be abelian or non-abelian, lead to vanishing contribution…
Recently a phenomenological relationship for the observed cosmological constant has been discussed by Motl and Carroll in the context of treating the cosmological constant as a $2\times 2$ matrix but no specific realization of the idea was…
Two independent criteria are presented that together guarantee exponential suppression of the two-loop cosmological constant in non-supersymmetric heterotic strings. They are derived by performing calculations in both the full string theory…
Some time ago we have suggested that positive vacuum energy exhibits a finite quantum break time, which can be a signal that a positive cosmological constant is inconsistent. From the requirement that Universe never undergoes through…