Dynamical solution to the problem of a small cosmological constant and late-time cosmic acceleration

Increasing evidence suggests that most of the energy density of the universe consists of a dark energy component with negative pressure that causes the cosmic expansion to accelerate. We address why this component comes to dominate the universe only recently. We present a class of theories based on...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2000-11, Vol.85 (21), p.4438-4441
Main Authors: Armendariz-Picon, C, Mukhanov, V, V, Steinhardt, PJ
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ACCELERATION
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
ENERGY DENSITY
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
SCALAR FIELDS
UNIVERSE
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Increasing evidence suggests that most of the energy density of the universe consists of a dark energy component with negative pressure that causes the cosmic expansion to accelerate. We address why this component comes to dominate the universe only recently. We present a class of theories based on an evolving scalar field where the explanation is based entirely on internal dynamical properties of the solutions. In the theories we consider, the dynamics causes the scalar field to lock automatically into a negative pressure state at the onset of matter domination such that the present epoch is the earliest possible time consistent with nucleosynthesis restrictions when it can start to dominate.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.85.4438