TY - JOUR
T1 - Discretuum versus continuum dark energy
AU - Dimopoulos, Savas
AU - Thomas, Scott
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to A. Linde for several very valuable discussions, and also thank N. Arkani-Hamed, W. Hu, M. Kamionkowski, L. Susskind, and T. Tyson for useful discussions. This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under Grant PHY02-44728, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Stanford University, and was partially completed at the Aspen Center for Physics.
PY - 2003/10/30
Y1 - 2003/10/30
N2 - The dark energy equation of state for theories with either a discretuum or continuum distribution of vacua is investigated. In the discretuum case the equation of state is constant w = p/ρ = -1. The continuum case may be realized by an action with large wave function factor Z for the dark energy modulus and generic potential. This form of the action is quantum mechanically stable and does not lead to measurable long range forces or violations of the equivalence principle. In addition, it has a special property which may be referred to as super-technical naturalness that results in a one-parameter family of predictions for the cosmological evolution of the dark energy equation of state as a function of redshift w = w(z). The discretuum and continuum predictions will be tested by future high precision measurements of the expansion history of the universe. Application of large Z-moduli to a predictive theory of Z-inflation is also considered.
AB - The dark energy equation of state for theories with either a discretuum or continuum distribution of vacua is investigated. In the discretuum case the equation of state is constant w = p/ρ = -1. The continuum case may be realized by an action with large wave function factor Z for the dark energy modulus and generic potential. This form of the action is quantum mechanically stable and does not lead to measurable long range forces or violations of the equivalence principle. In addition, it has a special property which may be referred to as super-technical naturalness that results in a one-parameter family of predictions for the cosmological evolution of the dark energy equation of state as a function of redshift w = w(z). The discretuum and continuum predictions will be tested by future high precision measurements of the expansion history of the universe. Application of large Z-moduli to a predictive theory of Z-inflation is also considered.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.physletb.2003.08.061
DO - 10.1016/j.physletb.2003.08.061
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2342438262
VL - 573
SP - 13
EP - 19
JO - Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
JF - Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
SN - 0370-2693
IS - 1-4
ER -