A symmetry for the cosmological constant

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Published 27 July 2006 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation David E. Kaplan and Raman Sundrum JHEP07(2006)042 DOI 10.1088/1126-6708/2006/07/042

1126-6708/2006/07/042

Abstract

We study a symmetry, schematically Energy → — Energy, which suppresses matter contributions to the cosmological constant. The requisite negative energy fluctuations are identified with a ``ghost'' copy of the Standard Model. Gravity explicitly, but weakly, violates the symmetry, and naturalness requires General Relativity to break down at short distances with testable consequences. If this breakdown is accompanied by gravitational Lorentz-violation, the decay of flat spacetime by ghost production is acceptably slow. We show that inflation works in our scenario and can lead to the initial conditions required for standard Big Bang cosmology.

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10.1088/1126-6708/2006/07/042