Small nonvanishing cosmological constant from vacuum energy: Physically and observationally desirable

Journal Article · Fri Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.52.6700· OSTI ID:147835

Singh, A ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 (United States)

Increasing improvements in the independent determinations of the Hubble constant and the age of the universe now seem to indicate that we need a small nonvanishing cosmological constant to make the two independent observations consistent with each other. The cosmological constant can be physically interpreted as due to the vacuum energy of quantized fields. To make the cosmological observations consistent with each other we would need a vacuum energy density {rho}{sub {ital v}}{similar_to}(10{sup {minus}3} eV){sup 4} today (in the cosmological units {h_bar}={ital c}={ital k}=1). It is argued in this paper that such a vacuum energy density is natural in the context of phase transitions linked to massive neutrinos. In fact, the neutrino masses required to provide the right vacuum energy scale to remove the age versus Hubble constant discrepancy are consistent with those required to solve the solar neutrino problem by the MSW mechanism. {copyright} 1995 The American Physical Society.

• Research Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-91ER40682
• OSTI ID: 147835
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 52; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
ENERGY DENSITY
MASS
NEUTRINOS
SOLAR NEUTRINOS
UNIVERSE
VACUUM STATES