2010/11/03 by Raphael Bousso, Ben Freivogel, Stefan Leichenauer +1 · 41 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Coincidence #Cosmological constant #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #Entropy (arrow of time) #Hierarchy #Inflation (cosmology) #Law #Limiting #Metastability #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scale (ratio) #Statistical physics #Theoretical physics #Vacuum energy #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.106.101301
published in Physical Review Letters 106(10), 101301 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor editing
arxiv created 2010/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2011/03/08 · arxiv updated 2011/03/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Weinberg's seminal prediction of the cosmological constant relied on a provisional method for regulating eternal inflation which has since been put aside. We show that a modern regulator, the causal patch, improves agreement with observation, removes many limiting assumptions, and yields additional powerful results. Without assuming necessary conditions for observers such as galaxies or entropy production, the causal patch measure predicts the coincidence of vacuum energy and present matter density. Their common scale, and thus the enormous size of the visible Universe, originates in the number of metastable vacua in the landscape.