2018/05/02 by Emilio Santos, Santos, Emilio · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cauchy stress tensor #Classical mechanics #Contraction (grammar) #Cosmological constant #Cosmological constant problem #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #FOS: Physical sciences #Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric #General Physics (physics.gen-ph) #Mathematics #Metric expansion of space #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum fluctuation #Quantum mechanics #Tensor (intrinsic definition) #Theoretical physics #Universe #Vacuum energy #Vacuum expectation value #physics.gen-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1805.03018
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · 16 pages
arxiv created 2018/05/02 · openalex publication_date 2018/05/02 · arxiv updated 2018/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I argue that a solution to the cosmological constant problem is to assume\nthat the expectation value of the quantum vacuum stress-energy tensor is\nproportional to the metric tensor with a negative energy density and positive\npressure. This assumption is confirmed by an explicit calculation of the vacuum\nexpectation for the free electromagnetic and Dirac fields of quantum\nelectrodynamics. As a consequence the metric of the universe might correspond\nto a FLRW with accelerating expansion only after averaging over large scales,\nbut at small scales it gives rise to an extremely rapid fluctuation between\nexpansion and contraction in every small region, with different phases in\ndifferent points. The vacuum stress-energy tensor has fluctuations that lead to\nshort periods of expansion. A calculation with plausible approximations leads\nto an estimate of the accelerating expansion that fits in the observed value.\n