Abstract
A theory of gravitation with a conformally coupled scalar field is considered in which the gravitational “constant” is associated with the vacuum expectation value of the scalar field. It is found that the universe will remain dominated by classical radiation unless the conformal symmetry is broken. The equations of motion thus derived bear a de Sitter phase solution, which could have an exponential growth of the cosmic scale factor with no vacuum energy. We discuss the cosmological implications of this kind of “inflation”. We also find that in the present theory the smallness of the vacuum energy for most time of the universe is due to the constancy of the gravitational “constant”.
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