Sequestering the standard model vacuum energy

Kaloper, Nemanja; Padilla, Antonio

Abstract

We propose a very simple reformulation of general relativity, which completely sequesters from gravity all of the vacuum energy from a matter sector, including all loop corrections and renders all contributions from phase transitions automatically small. The idea is to make the dimensional parameters in the matter sector functionals of the 4-volume element of the Universe. For them to be nonzero, the Universe should be finite in spacetime. If this matter is the standard model of particle physics, our mechanism prevents any of its vacuum energy, classical or quantum, from sourcing the curvature of the Universe. The mechanism is consistent with the large hierarchy between the Planck scale, electroweak scale, and curvature scale, and early Universe cosmology, including inflation. Consequences of our proposal are that the vacuum curvature of an old and large universe is not zero, but very small, that wDE-1 is a transient, and that the Universe will collapse in the future. © 2014 American Physical Society.

Citation

Kaloper, N., & Padilla, A. (2014). Sequestering the standard model vacuum energy. Physical Review Letters, 112(9), Article 091304. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091304

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 16, 2013
• Publication Date: Mar 6, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 27, 2016
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 112
• Issue: 9
• Article Number: 091304
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091304
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/725588
• Publisher URL: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.091304
• Contract Date: Jul 27, 2016