Vacuum Fluctuations of Energy Density can lead to the observed Cosmological Constant

Abstract

The energy density associated with Planck length is ${\rho }_{uv}\propto L_P^{-4}$ while the energy density associated with the Hubble length is ${\rho }_{ir}\propto L_H^{-4}$ where $L_H=1/H$. The observed value of the dark energy density is quite different from {\it either} of these and is close to the geometric mean of the two: ${\rho }_{vac}\simeq \sqrt{{\rho }_{uv}{\rho }_{ir}}$. It is argued that classical gravity is actually a probe of the vacuum {\it fluctuations} of energy density, rather than the energy density itself. While the globally defined ground state, being an eigenstate of Hamiltonian, will not have any fluctuations, the ground state energy in the finite region of space bounded by the cosmic horizon will exhibit fluctuations $\Delta {\rho }_{\mathrm{vac}}(L_P,L_H)$. When used as a source of gravity, this $\Delta \rho$ should lead to a spacetime with a horizon size $L_H$. This bootstrapping condition leads naturally to an effective dark energy density $\Delta \rho \propto (L_{uv}{L}_H{)}^{-2}\propto H^2/G$ which is precisely the observed value. The model requires, either (i) a stochastic fluctuations of vacuum energy which is correlated over about a Hubble time or (ii) a semi- anthropic interpretation. The implications are discussed.

arXiv commentr pages; revtex; comments welcome

References in corpus (28)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy
• Type Ia Supernova Discoveries at z>1 From the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for Past Deceleration and Constraints on Dark Energy Evolution
• A Phantom Menace? Cosmological consequences of a dark energy component with super-negative equation of state
• Cosmological Constant - the Weight of the Vacuum
• Entropy and Area
• Essentials of k-essence
• Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae
• Accelerated expansion of the universe driven by tachyonic matter
• Cosmology with tachyon field as dark energy
• Can the clustered dark matter and the smooth dark energy arise from the same scalar field ?
• 23 High Redshift Supernovae from the IfA Deep Survey: Doubling the SN Sample at z>0.7
• WMAP constraints on low redshift evolution of dark energy
• A theoretician's analysis of the supernova data and the limitations in determining the nature of dark energy
• Cosmological parameters from supernova observations: A critical comparison of three data sets
• Forks in the Road, on the Way to Quantum Gravity
• Thoughts on Tachyon Cosmology
• A measurement of Omega from the North American test flight of BOOMERANG
• Attractor Solution of Phantom Field
• Everpresent Lambda
• Cosmology and the Standard Model
• Probes of the vacuum structure of quantum fields in classical backgrounds
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Summary and Future Directions
• Cosmological models from quintessence
• The Shortest Scale of Quantum Field Theory
• Why do we observe a small but non zero cosmological constant ?
• Cosmological constant and vacuum energy
• Area-scaling of quantum fluctuations

Cited by in corpus (74)

• Dynamics of dark energy
• Thermodynamical Aspects of Gravity: New insights
• Holographic Dark Energy
• Cosmological constant and vacuum energy: old and new ideas
• Dark Energy and Gravity
• Observational constraints on low redshift evolution of dark energy: How consistent are different observations?
• Entropy of Null Surfaces and Dynamics of Spacetime
• Restoring Holographic Dark Energy in Brane Cosmology
• Holographic Dark Energy in Braneworld Models with a Gauss-Bonnet Term in the Bulk. Interacting Behavior and the w =-1 Crossing
• Cosmological Dark Energy: Prospects for a Dynamical Theory
• Dark Energy: the Cosmological Challenge of the Millennium
• Lessons from Classical Gravity about the Quantum Structure of Spacetime
• Generalizing the running vacuum energy model and comparing with the entropic-force models
• Current constraints on interacting holographic dark energy
• Zero-point quantum fluctuations and dark energy
• Gravity: A New Holographic Perspective
• Emergent Models for Gravity: an Overview of Microscopic Models
• Holographic Dark Energy in Braneworld Models with Moving Branes and the w=-1 Crossing
• Quintessence Ghost Dark Energy Model
• Dark energy from vacuum entanglement
• Remarks on the formulation of the cosmological constant/dark energy problems
• Cosmological Constant: A Lesson from Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Cosmological Constant from the Emergent Gravity Perspective
• A noncommutative approach to the cosmological constant problem
• Casimir Effect confronts Cosmological Constant
• Scalar Field Dark Energy Perturbations and their Scale Dependence
• Vacuum Energy, the Cosmological Constant and Compact Extra Dimensions: Constraints from Casimir Effect Experiments
• Time and M-theory
• Entropic Force Scenarios and Eternal Inflation
• String inspired explanation for the super-acceleration of our universe
• A new perspective on Gravity and the dynamics of Spacetime
• Generalized thermodynamic constraints on holographic-principle-based cosmological scenarios
• Dark Energy as a Born-Infeld Gauge Interaction Violating the Equivalence Principle
• Zero-point quantum fluctuations in cosmology
• Fine Structure of Dark Energy and New Physics
• Why Does Gravity Ignore the Vacuum Energy?
• Hologrphy and holographic dark energy model
• The transition of equation of state of effective dark energy in the DGP model with bulk contents
• Minimal Scales from an Extended Hilbert Space
• Black hole and holographic dark energy
• Entanglement harvesting of three Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• A Strong Constraint on Ever-Present Lambda
• Why there is something so close to nothing: towards a fundamental theory of the cosmological constant
• Cosmological Constant Problem and Renormalized Vacuum Energy Density in Curved Background
• Entropy In The Present And Early Universe: New Small Parameters And Dark Energy Problem
• Evolution of perturbations in distinct classes of canonical scalar field models of dark energy
• Determination of the UV cut-off from the observed value of the Universe acceleration
• Entanglement system, Casimir energy and black hole
• The Cosmological Constant Problem and Re-interpretation of Time
• Dark Energy From Vacuum Fluctuations
• Hidden invariance in Gurzadyan-Xue cosmological models
• Non-existence of Extended Holographic Dark Energy with Hubble Horizon
• Holographic Dark Energy and Quantum Entanglement
• Energy stored on a cosmological horizon and its thermodynamic fluctuations in holographic equipartition law
• Is dark energy from cosmic Hawking radiation?
• Probing Universality Of Gravity
• An Alternative Approach to Holographic Dark Energy
• Noncommutative gravity, a `no strings attached' quantum-classical duality, and the cosmological constant puzzle
• The Cosmological Constant Problem and Quantum Spacetime Reference Frame
• CMB Fluctuation Amplitude from Dark Energy Partitions
• Quantum vacuum fluctuations and dark energy
• Shadows of trans-planckian physics on cosmology and the role of the zero-point energy density
• Space-time curvature due to quantum vacuum fluctuations: An alternative to dark energy?
• Crossing of the Cosmological Constant Boundary - an Equation of State Description
• BGV theorem, Geodesic deviation, and Quantum fluctuations
• The effect of de Sitter like background on increasing the zero point budget of dark energy
• Supersymmetric dark energy
• Deformed Quantum Field Theory, Thermodynamics at Low and High Energies, and Gravity. I
• Probing the matter and dark energy sources in a viable Big Rip model of the Universe
• De Sitter quantum scalar field and horizon holography
• Quantum theory, noncommutative gravity, and the cosmological constant problem
• Field theory vacuum and entropic dark energy models
• Induced energy polarization of the vacuum and the resulting cosmology
• Modified Newtonian dynamics as a prediction of general relativity