Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: We consider a Weyl-invariant formulation of gravity with a cosmological constant in $d$-dimensional spacetime and show that near two dimensions the classical action reduces to the timelike Liouville action. We show that the renormalized cosmological term leads to a nonlocal quantum momentum tensor which satisfies the Ward identities in a nontrivial way. The resulting evolution equations for an isotropic, homogeneous universe lead to slowly decaying vacuum energy and power-law expansion. We outline the implications for the cosmological constant problem, inflation, and dark energy.
Authors: Teresa Bautista, Atish Dabholkar
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
OpenAlex ID: W2277750687