The Cosmological Contant Problem and Many Body Physics: An Investigation
Open Access
Author:
Vaid, Deepak
Graduate Program:
Physics
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
October 11, 2010
Committee Members:
Stephon Alexander, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Martin Bojowald, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Jainendra Jain, Committee Member Adrian Ocneanu, Committee Member Jayant Bhanavar, Special Member
Keywords:
physics theory gravity high energy thesis cosmological constant many body
Abstract:
A model for condensation of fermions in a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background is presented. It is shown that condensation can happen, via the BCS mechanism due to a four-fermion interaction which appears naturally when fermions are included in gravity. We argue that this process can form the basis for a non-perturbative resolution to the cosmological constant problem. In order to make contact with observational evidence, we show that CMB data from the WMAP3 mission can be fitted to a cosmological model with zero Λ_{eff} , provided that we live in a universe riddled with voids of the order of 100 Mpc. For our calculations voids are approximated by LTB metrics. We argue that the correct way to model voids is based on the methods of dark matter structure formation, which are highly non-linear but are amenable to an analytic treatment.
