Predicting the cosmological constant from the causal entropic principle
- Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300 (United States) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-8162 (United States)
- Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94309 (United States) and Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 (United States)
- C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3840 (United States)
We compute the expected value of the cosmological constant in our universe from the causal entropic principle. Since observers must obey the laws of thermodynamics and causality, the principle asserts that physical parameters are most likely to be found in the range of values for which the total entropy production within a causally connected region is maximized. Despite the absence of more explicit anthropic criteria, the resulting probability distribution turns out to be in excellent agreement with observation. In particular, we find that dust heated by stars dominates the entropy production, demonstrating the remarkable power of this thermodynamic selection criterion. The alternative approach - weighting by the number of 'observers per baryon' - is less well-defined, requires problematic assumptions about the nature of observers, and yet prefers values larger than present experimental bounds.
- OSTI ID:
- 21027578
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 76, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.76.043513; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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