Lambda: The constant that refuses to die (Q1840817)

In his contribution ``The Evolutionary Universe'' (1958) Gamow says: ``Einstein remarked to me many years ago that the cosmic repulsion idea was the biggest blunder he had made in his entire life.'' Einstein added the ``cosmological term'' \(\Lambda\) to the gravitational field equations when his general theory of relativity was only one year old, but rejected the cosmological term later. However, it turned out to be a not an easy undertaking to put the ghost back into the bottle again. This interesting article reviews the history of the often reviled but never defeated \(\Lambda\). In fact, the author states that ``\dots as I write, the observational evidence is mounting that the actual universe is characterized by a positive cosmological constant \((\Lambda)\), or something that acts like one.'' At the present time a positive \(\Lambda\) -- or a strange form of matter that imitates some of the effects of a positive \(\Lambda\) -- seems to be needed to explain an accelerating expansion of the universe and to make up for the missing mass required by the spatially flat universe favored by inflationary cosmology. The author concludes: ``Whether or not \(\Lambda\) will survive in this role remains to be seen. But if the past is any guide to the future, \(\Lambda\) will always return in some form or other''.