PIRSA:15110095

Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant

Bachlechner, T. (2015). Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/15110095

Bachlechner, Thomas. Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 19, 2015, https://pirsa.org/15110095 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:15110095,
            doi = {10.48660/15110095},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/15110095},
            author = {Bachlechner, Thomas},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = { Axionic Band Structure of the Cosmological Constant},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2015},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:15110095 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Thomas Bachlechner

Columbia University

Talk number
PIRSA:15110095
Collection
Talk Type
Subject
Abstract

We argue that theories with multiple axions generically contain a large
number of vacua that can account for the smallness of the cosmological
constant. In a theory with N axions, the dominant instantons with charges Q
determine the discrete symmetry of vacua. Subleading instantons break the
leading periodicity and lift the vacuum degeneracy. For generic integer charges
the number of distinct vacua is given by |det(Q)|~exp(N). Our construction
motivates the existence of a landscape with a vast number of vacua in
four-dimensional effective theories.