Relaxing the cosmological constant: a proof of concept

DOI10.1007/JHEP12(2016)022zbMATH Open1390.83428arXiv1608.05715WikidataQ63354070 ScholiaQ63354070MaRDI QIDQ1636610FDOQ1636610

David Pirtskhalava, Paolo Creminelli, Andrei Khmelnitsky, Lasma Alberte, E. Trincherini

Publication date: 12 June 2018

Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We propose a technically natural scenario whereby an initially large cosmological constant (c.c.) is relaxed down to the observed value due to the dynamics of a scalar evolving on a very shallow potential. The model crucially relies on a sector that violates the null energy condition (NEC) and gets activated only when the Hubble rate becomes sufficiently small --- of the order of the present one. As a result of NEC violation, this low-energy universe evolves into inflation, followed by reheating and the standard Big Bang cosmology. The symmetries of the theory force the c.c. to be the same before and after the NEC-violating phase, so that a late-time observer sees an effective c.c. of the correct magnitude. Importantly, our model allows neither for eternal inflation nor for a set of possible values of dark energy, the latter fixed by the parameters of the theory.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05715

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zbMATH Keywords

classical theories of gravityeffective field theoriesglobal symmetries

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

Cites Work

• The cosmological constant problem
• Inflation from Minkowski space
• \(k\)-inflation
• Starting the universe: stable violation of the null energy condition and non-standard cosmologies
• Why the Cosmological Constant Is Small and Positive
• Manifestly Local Theory of Vacuum Energy Sequestering
• The big constant out, the small constant in

Cited In (14)

• Relaxation of the cosmological constant in a movable brane world
• A small weak scale from a small cosmological constant
• Saltatory relaxation of the cosmological constant
• Non-perturbative analysis for a massless minimal quantum scalar with V(ϕ) = λϕ ⁴/4! + βϕ ³/3! in the inflationary de Sitter spacetime
• Massless minimal quantum scalar field with an asymmetric self interaction in de Sitter spacetime
• Apparent fine tunings for field theories with broken space-time symmetries
• Loop correction and Resummation of vertex functions for a self interacting scalar field in the de Sitter spacetime
• Self-tuning of the cosmological constant in brane-worlds with P(X,ϕ)
• Reheating after relaxation of large cosmological constant
• Superfluids and the cosmological constant problem
• Inflation with 0 ≤ c _s ≤ 1
• Non-perturbative \(\langle\phi\rangle\), \(\langle\phi^2\rangle\) and the dynamically generated scalar mass with Yukawa interaction in the inflationary de Sitter spacetime
• A simple proof of Birkhoff's theorem for cosmological constant
• Robustness of the cosmological constant damping mechanism through matter eras

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