Spacetime Foam and the Cosmological Constant
APA
Carlip, S. (2019). Spacetime Foam and the Cosmological Constant. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/19110107
MLA
Carlip, Steve. Spacetime Foam and the Cosmological Constant. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 21, 2019, https://pirsa.org/19110107
BibTex
@misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:19110107, doi = {10.48660/19110107}, url = {https://pirsa.org/19110107}, author = {Carlip, Steve}, keywords = {Cosmology, Quantum Fields and Strings, Quantum Gravity}, language = {en}, title = {Spacetime Foam and the Cosmological Constant}, publisher = {Perimeter Institute}, year = {2019}, month = {nov}, note = {PIRSA:19110107 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}} }
University of California, Davis
Talk Type
Abstract
I describe a radical proposal for the cosmological constant problem: perhaps Lambda really is very large, but is "hidden" in Planck-scale fluctuations of geometry and topology. I show that an enormous set of initial data describe a universe with such a hidden cosmological constant at an initial time. The question of whether this structure is preserved under time evolution is still open, but I provide some evidence that it may be. I close with a discussion of open questions that might lead to further insight (or perhaps kill the idea).