Related papers: Strong Coupling and the Cosmological Constant
A range of cosmological observations demonstrate an accelerated expansion of the Universe, and the most likely explanation of this phenomenon is a cosmological constant. Given the importance of understanding the underlying physics, it is…
A strong-weak coupling duality symmetry of the string equations of motion has been suggested in the literature. This symmetry implies that vacua occur in pairs. Since the coupling constant is a dynamical variable in string theory, tunneling…
This article briefly summarizes and reviews the motivations for - and the present status of - the proposal that the small size of the observed Dark Energy density can be understood in terms of the dynamical relaxation of two large extra…
Aspects of string cosmology for critical and non-critical strings are discussed emphasizing the necessity to account for the dilaton dynamics for a proper incorporation of ``large - small" duality. This drastically modifies the intuition…
In this paper, we give a possible solution to the cosmological constant problem. It is shown hat the traditional approach, based on volume weighting of probabilities, leads to an incoherent onclusion: the probability that a randomly chosen…
The old cosmological constant problem is to understand why the vacuum energy is so small; the new problem is to understand why it is comparable to the present mass density. Several approaches to these problems are reviewed. Quintessence…
We show that if there is a realistic 4-d string, the dilaton and moduli supermultiplets will generically acquire a small mass O(m_{3/2}), providing the only vacuum-independent evidence of low-energy physics in string theory beyond the…
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,…
It will be argued here that the cosmological constant problem exists because of the way the vacuum is defined in quantum field theory. It has been known for some time that for QFT to be gauge invariant certain terms--such as part of the…
The canonical structure of supergravity with a cosmological constant is analyzed in 2 + 1 dimensions using the Dirac constraint formalism. The first class constraints are used to find two Bosonic and one Fermionic gauge symmetries that…
In some recent theories including Quantum SuperString theory we encounter duality - it arises due to a non commutative geometry which in effect adds an extra term to the Heiserberg Uncertainity Principle. The result is that the micro world…
In this work, the solution space in the Newman-Penrose formalism with a cosmological constant is derived. The residual gauge transformation preserving the solution space is also worked out. By turning off the cosmological constant, the…
Recent data on supernovae favor high values of the cosmological constant. Spacetimes with a cosmological constant have non-relativistic kinematics quite different from Galilean kinematics. De Sitter spacetimes, vacuum solutions of…
The supersymmetric generalization of dilatations in the presence of the dilaton is defined. This is done by defining the supersymmetric dilaton geometry which is motivated by the supersymmetric volume preserving diffeomorphisms. The…
It has recently been suggested that in certain special nonsupersymmetric type II string compactifications, at least the first two perturbative contributions to the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ vanish. Support for perturbative vanishing…
A phenomenological model is proposed to explain the recent observed cosmological variation of the fine structure constant as an effect of the quantum vacuum, assuming a flat universe with cosmological constant $\Lambda$ in the cases…
The principles of General Relativity allow for a non-vanishing cosmological constant, which can possibly be interpreted at least partially in terms of quantum-fluctuations of matter fields. Depending on sign and magnitude it can cause…
We consider a massive scalar field with a coordinate-dependent mass in higher-dimensional spacetime. The field satisfies Dirichlet boundary conditions on a brane representing the four-dimensional world. Despite being massive, the theory is…
It is conjectured that M-theory in asymptotically flat spacetime must be supersymmetric, and that the observed SUSY breaking in the low energy world must be attributed to the existence of a nonzero cosmological constant. This would be…
Recent cosmological observations suggest the existence of a positive cosmological constant $\Lambda$ with the magnitude $\Lambda(G\hbar/c^3) \approx 10^{-123}$. This review discusses several aspects of the cosmological constant both from…