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Gravitational mechanisms to self-tune the cosmological constant: obstructions and ways forward

Niedermann, Florian; Padilla, Antonio

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Authors

Florian Niedermann



Abstract

Gravitational models of self-tuning are those in which vacuum energy has no observable effect on spacetime curvature, even though it is a priori unsuppressed below the cut-off. We complement Weinberg's no go theorem by studying field theoretic completions of self-adjustment allowing for broken translations as well as other generalisations, and identify new obstructions. Our analysis uses a very general Källén-Lehmann spectral representation of the exchange amplitude for conserved sources of energy-momentum and exploits unitarity and Lorentz invariance to show that a transition from self-tuning of long wavelength sources to near General Relativity on shorter scales is generically not possible. We search for novel ways around our obstructions and highlight two interesting possibilities. The first is an example of a unitary field configuration on anti-de Sitter space with the desired transition from self-tuning to GR. A second example is motivated by vacuumenergy sequestering.

Citation

Niedermann, F., & Padilla, A. (2017). Gravitational mechanisms to self-tune the cosmological constant: obstructions and ways forward. Physical Review Letters, 119(25), Article 251306. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.251306

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 17, 2017
Publication Date Dec 22, 2017
Deposit Date Dec 13, 2017
Publicly Available Date Dec 22, 2017
Journal Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN 0031-9007
Electronic ISSN 1079-7114
Publisher American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 119
Issue 25
Article Number 251306
DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.251306
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/901351
Publisher URL https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.251306
Additional Information © 2017 American Physical Society
Contract Date Dec 13, 2017

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