It is suggested that the mechanism responsible for the resolution of the gauge hierarchy problem within the warped geometry framework can be generalized to provide a new explanation of the extremely tiny vacuum energy density ${\rho }_V$ suggested by recent observations. We illustrate the mechanism with some 5D examples in which the true vacuum energy is assumed to vanish, and ${\rho }_V$ is associated with a false vacuum energy such that ${\rho }_V^{1/4}\sim {\mathrm{TeV}}^2{/M}_{\mathrm{Pl}}\sim {10}^{-3}\mathrm{eV},$ where $M_{\mathrm{Pl}}$ denotes the reduced Planck mass. We also consider a quintessence-like solution to the dark energy problem.

• Received 16 August 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.023503