2004/05/19 by Paweł O. Mazur, Pawel O. Mazur, Emil Mottola +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/0405111
Contributed talk at the Sixth Workshop on 'Quantum Field Theory Under The Influence Of External Conditions' held at the Univ. of Oklahoma, September 15-19, 2003, to be published in the Proceedings by Rinton Press (2004)
arxiv created 2004/05/19 · openalex publication_date 2004/05/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Vacuum fluctuations and the Casimir effect are considered in a cosmological setting. It is suggested that the dark energy, which recent observations suggest make up 73% of our universe, is vacuum energy due to a causal boundary effect at the cosmological horizon. After a discussion of the similarities and differences between material boundaries in flat spacetime and causal horizons in general relativity, a simple model with a purely vacuum energy de Sitter interior and Schwarzschild exterior, separated by a thin boundary layer is outlined. The boundary layer is a quantum transition region which replaces the event horizons of the classical de Sitter and Schwarzschild solutions, through which the vacuum energy changes.