Big extra dimensions make Lambda too small

Abstract

I argue that the true quantum gravity scale cannot be much larger than the Planck length, because if it were then the quantum gravity-induced fluctuations in $\Lam$ would be insufficient to produce the observed cosmic ``dark energy''. If one accepts this argument, it rules out scenarios of the ``large extra dimensions'' type. I also point out that the relation between the lower and higher dimensional gravitational constants in a Kaluza-Klein theory is precisely what is needed in order that a black hole's entropy admit a consistent higher dimensional interpretation in terms of an underlying spatio-temporal discreteness.

plainTeX, 9 pages, no figures To appear in a special issue of the Brazilian Journal of Physics devoted to the Proceedings of the Second International Workshop ``DICE 2004'' held September, 2004, Piombino, Italy. MOST CURRENT VERSION available at http://www.physics.syr.edu/~sorkin/some.papers/ or wherever my home-page is

References in corpus (4)

• A Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension
• An Alternative to Compactification
• Causal Sets: Discrete Gravity (Notes for the Valdivia Summer School)
• Introduction to causal sets: an alternate view of spacetime structure

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• The causal set approach to quantum gravity
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• Time and M-theory
• Light, Links and Causal Sets
• Why there is something so close to nothing: towards a fundamental theory of the cosmological constant
• Surface Tension and the Cosmological Constant
• The linearity of quantum mechanics from the perspective of Hamiltonian cellular automata
• The Universe in a Soap Film