2008/11/30 by Jose Beltrán Jiménez, Jose Beltran Jimenez, Antonio L. Maroto +1
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2009/03/016
published as JCAP 0903:016,2009 · 13 pages, 3 figures. New comments, figures and references included. Final version to appear in JCAP
arxiv created 2009/02/18 · openalex publication_date 2009/03/10 · arxiv updated 2011/07/13 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We show that the presence of a temporal electromagnetic field on cosmological scales generates an effective cosmological constant which can account for the accelerated expansion of the universe. Primordial electromagnetic quantum fluctuations produced during electroweak scale inflation could naturally explain the presence of this field and also the measured value of the dark energy density. The behavior of the electromagnetic field on cosmological scales is found to differ from the well studied short-distance behavior and, in fact, the presence of a non-vanishing cosmological constant could be signalling the breakdown of gauge invariance on cosmological scales. The theory is compatible with all the local gravity tests, and is free from classical or quantum instabilities. Thus we see that, not only the true nature of dark energy can be established without resorting to new physics, but also the value of the cosmological constant finds a natural explanation in the context of standard inflationary cosmology. This mechanism could be discriminated from a true cosmological constant by upcoming observations of CMB anisotropies and large scale structure.