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arXiv · 0910.3716

Relaxing the cosmological constant in the extreme ultra-infrared

Rafael A. Porto·A. Zee
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Abstract

We speculate on the dynamical critical behavior of gravity in the extreme ultra-infrared (EuIR) sector and a mechanism to relax the cosmological constant. We show that in the EuIR the cosmological constant term could be made irrelevant for values of the dynamical critical exponent z_EuIR greater than one. We discuss a possible realization of this idea that connects the relaxation of the cosmological constant to the ratio between the EuIR and IR scales, where the latter serves as the 'UV' cutoff of our (ultra long distance) effective theory, with z_IR ~ 1. For distances smaller than the IR regime Lorentz invariance emerges. We entertain the possibility that the effective description of the universe may not be Lorentz invariant at much larger scales. We discuss why local physics cannot detect the 'natural' value for the density of dark energy below the IR scale, and briefly comment on possible connections with holography.

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Rafael A. Porto, A. Zee. 2009-10-19. Relaxing the cosmological constant in the extreme ultra-infrared. https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381%2F27%2F6%2F065006

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