Midisuperspace foam and the cosmological constant
Abstract
Wheeler’s conjectured ‘spacetime foam’—large quantum fluctuations of spacetime at the Planck scale—could have important implications for quantum gravity, perhaps even explaining why the cosmological constant seems so small. Here I explore this problem in a midisuperspace model consisting of metrics with local spherical symmetry. Classically, an infinite class of ‘foamy’ initial data can be constructed, in which cancellations between expanding and contracting regions lead to a small average expansion even if Λ is large. Quantum mechanically, the model admits corresponding stationary states, for which the probability current is also nearly zero. These states appear to describe a self-reproducing spacetime foam with very small average expansion, effectively hiding the cosmological constant.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-91ER40674
- OSTI ID:
- 1979253
- Journal Information:
- Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 39, Issue 2; ISSN 0264-9381
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English