A natural cosmological constant from chameleons

Abstract

We present a simple model where the effective cosmological constant appears from chameleon scalar fields. For a Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi (KKLT)-inspired form of the potential and a particular chameleon coupling to the local density, patches of approximately constant scalar field potential cluster around regions of matter with density above a certain value, generating the effect of a cosmological constant on large scales. This construction addresses both the cosmological constant problem (why $\Lambda$ is so small, yet nonzero) and the coincidence problem (why $\Lambda$ is comparable to the matter density now).

9 pages; explanations, footnotes and references added

References in corpus (5)

• Strongly Coupled Chameleon Fields: New Horizons in Scalar Field Theory
• Laboratory constraints on chameleon dark energy and power-law fields
• Towards a UV Completion for Chameleon Scalar Theories
• Chameleonic inflation
• Chameleons on the Racetrack

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Beyond the Cosmological Standard Model
• Tests of Chameleon Gravity
• Chameleon Field Theories