2006/05/23 by Vishnu Jejjala, Djordje Minić, Djordje Minic · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0217751x07036336
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys.A22:1797-1818,2007 · 19 pages, LaTeX; v.2: references added
arxiv created 2006/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2007/04/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The cosmological constant problem is turned around to argue for a new foundational physics postulate underlying a consistent quantum theory of gravity and matter, such as string theory. This postulate is a quantum equivalence principle which demands a consistent gauging of the geometric structure of canonical quantum theory. We argue that string theory can be formulated to accommodate such a principle, and that in such a theory the observed cosmological constant is a fluctuation about a zero value. This fluctuation arises from an uncertainty relation involving the cosmological constant and the effective volume of space–time. The measured, small vacuum energy is dynamically tied to the large "size" of the universe, thus violating naive decoupling between small and large scales. The numerical value is related to the scale of cosmological supersymmetry breaking, supersymmetry being needed for a nonperturbative stability of local Minkowski space–time regions in the classical regime.