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arXiv · 1510.06388

Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant

Thomas C. Bachlechner
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Abstract

We argue that theories with multiple axions generically contain a large number of vacua that can account for the smallness of the cosmological constant. In a theory with N axions, the dominant instantons with charges Q determine the discrete symmetry of vacua. Subleading instantons break the leading periodicity and lift the vacuum degeneracy. For generic integer charges the number of distinct vacua is given by |det(Q)|~exp(N). Our construction motivates the existence of a landscape with a vast number of vacua in a large class of four-dimensional effective theories.

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Thomas C. Bachlechner. 2015-10-21. Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.93.023522

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