Friday, December 30, 2011

1108.2112 (Ying-li Zhang et al.)

Screening of cosmological constant in non-local cosmology    [PDF]

Ying-li Zhang, Misao Sasaki
We consider a model of non-local gravity with a large bare cosmological constant, $\Lambda$, and study its cosmological solutions. The model is characterized by a function $f(\psi)=f_0 e^{\alpha\psi}$ where $\psi=\Box^{-1}R$ and $\alpha$ is a real dimensionless parameter. In the absence of matter, we find an expanding universe solution $a\propto t^n$ with $n<1$, that is, a universe with decelarated expansion without any fine-tuning of the parameter. Thus the effect of the cosmological constant is effectively shielded in this solution. It has been known that solutions in non-local gravity often suffer from the existence of ghost modes. In the present case we find the solution is ghost-free if $\alpha>\alpha_{cr}\approx0.17$. This is quite a weak condition. We argue that the solution is stable against the includion of matter fields. Thus our solution opens up new possibilities for solution to the cosmological constant problem.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2112

No comments:

Post a Comment