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Published June 15, 2017 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

A Nonlocal Approach to the Cosmological Constant Problem

Abstract

We construct a model in which the cosmological constant is canceled from the gravitational equations of motion. Our model relies on two key ingredients: a nonlocal constraint on the action, which forces the spacetime average of the Lagrangian density to vanish, and a dynamical way for this condition to be satisfied classically with arbitrary matter content. We implement the former condition with a spatially constant Lagrange multiplier associated with the volume form and the latter by including a free four-form gauge field strength in the action. These two features are enough to remove the cosmological constant from the Einstein equation. The model is consistent with all cosmological and experimental bounds on modification of gravity and allows for both cosmic inflation and the present epoch of acceleration.

Additional Information

© 2017 American Physical Society. Received 5 April 2017; published 7 June 2017. We thank Cliff Cheung and John Schwarz for helpful comments, as well as Monica Guica and Eugene Lim for discussions and collaboration at an earlier stage of this work. This research is funded in part by the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at Caltech, by DOE Grant No. DE-SC0011632, and by the Foundational Questions Institute. G. N. R. is supported by a Hertz Graduate Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1144469.

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevD.95.123504.pdf

Submitted - 1703.09715.pdf

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Created:
August 19, 2023
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October 25, 2023