Weinberg's No-go Theorem Research Articles

A minimal self-tuning model to solve the cosmological constant problem

The expansion of the Universe is observed to be accelerating, with the simplest solution being a classical cosmological constant. However, this receives contributions from the quantum vacuum, which are predicted to be many orders of magnitude larger than observations, and suffers from radiative instabilities requiring repeated fine-tuning. In this paper we present a minimal, self-tuning scalar field model that can dynamically cancel a large quantum vacuum energy, avoiding Weinberg's No-Go Theorem, and produce accelerated de Sitter expansion at a lower energy scale as a solution to the problem. Our minimal model, which contains a non-canonical kinetic energy and a linear potential, belongs to the Kinetic Gravity Braiding sub-class of Horndeski theory which is not observationally excluded, and lies outside of the known Fab-Four or Well-Tempered models. We find analytic solutions in the limits of slow-roll and fast-roll, and numerically solve the equations of motion to illustrate our model. We show that the model allows for a matter dominated era, and that the attractor solution is stable under a phase transition in the vacuum energy density. We also consider the energy-scales required to match observations. Our model shows the existence of a wider class of successful self-tuning models than previously assumed.

Scale symmetry and Weinberg's no-go theorem in the cosmological constant problem

We complete the proof of Weinberg's no-go theorem on the cosmological constant problem in classical gravity when the theory has a (global) scale symmetry. Stimulated with this proof, we explore a solution to the cosmological constant problem by the help of renormalization group equations. We find that the manifestly scale invariant regularization method provides a physically plausible solution to the cosmological constant problem, in particular, to the issue of radiative instability of the cosmological constant.

Superfluids and the cosmological constant problem

We introduce a novel method to circumvent Weinberg's no-go theorem for self-tuning the cosmological vacuum energy: a finite-temperature superfluid can counter the effects of an arbitrarily large cosmological constant. Fluctuations of the superfluid result in the graviton acquiring a Lorentz-violating mass and we identify a unique class of theories that are pathology free, phenomenologically viable, and do not suffer from instantaneous modes. This new and hitherto unidentified phase of massive gravity propagates the same degrees of freedom as general relativity with an additional Lorentz-violating scalar that is introduced by higher-derivative operators in a UV insensitive manner. The superfluid is therefore a consistent infrared modification of gravity. We demonstrate how the superfluid can degravitate a cosmological constant and discuss its phenomenology.

More on Weinberg’s no-go theorem in quantum gravity

We complement Weinberg's no-go theorem on the cosmological constant problem in quantum gravity by generalizing it to the case of a scale-invariant theory. Our analysis makes use of the effective action and the BRST symmetry in a manifestly covariant quantum gravity instead of the classical Lagrangian density and the $GL(4)$ symmetry in classical gravity. In this sense, our proof is very general since it does not depend on details of quantum gravity and holds true for general gravitational theories which are invariant under diffeomorphisms. As an application of our theorem, we comment on an idea that in the asymptotic safety scenario the functional renormalization flow drives a cosmological constant to zero, solving the cosmological constant problem without reference to fine tuning of parameters. Finally, we also comment on the possibility of extending the Weinberg theorem in quantum gravity to the case where the translational invariance is spontaneously broken.

Gravitational Mechanisms to Self-Tune the Cosmological Constant: Obstructions and Ways Forward.

Gravitational models of self-tuning are those in which vacuum energy has no observable effect on spacetime curvature, even though it is apriori unsuppressed below the cutoff. We complement Weinberg's no-go theorem by studying field-theoretic completions of self-adjustment allowing for broken translations as well as other generalizations, and identify new obstructions. Our analysis uses a very general Källén-Lehmann spectral representation of the exchange amplitude for conserved sources of energy-momentum and exploits unitarity and Lorentz invariance to show that a transition from self-tuning of long wavelength sources to near general relativity (GR) on shorter scales is generically not possible. We search for novel ways around our obstructions and highlight two interesting possibilities. The first is an example of a unitary field configuration on anti-de Sitter space with the desired transition from self-tuning to GR. A second example is motivated by vacuum energy sequestering.

Evading Weinberg's no-go theorem to construct mass dimension one fermions: Constructing darkness

Recent theoretical work reporting the construction of a new quantum field of spin one-half fermions with mass dimension one requires that Weinberg's no-go theorem must be evaded. Here we show how this comes about. The essence of the argument is to first define a quantum field with due care being taken in fixing the locality phases attached to each of the expansion coefficients. The second ingredient is to systematically construct the dual of the expansion coefficients to define the adjoint of the field. The Feynman-Dyson propagator constructed from the vacuum expectation value of the field and its adjoint then yields the mass dimensionality of the field. For a quantum field constructed from a complete set of eigenspinors of the charge conjugation operator, with locality phases judiciously chosen, the Feynman-Dyson propagator determines the mass dimension of the field to be one, rather than three halves. The Lorentz symmetry is preserved, locality anticommutators are satisfied, without violating fermionic statistics as needed for the spin one-half field.

Small vacuum energy from small equivalence violation in scalar gravity

The theory of scalar gravity proposed by Nordström, and refined by Einstein and Fokker, provides a striking analogy to general relativity. In its modern form, scalar gravity appears as the low-energy effective field theory of the spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry within a CFT, and is AdS/CFT dual to the original Randall-Sundrum I model, but without a UV brane. Scalar gravity faithfully exhibits several qualitative features of the cosmological constant problem of standard gravity coupled to quantum matter, and the Weinberg no-go theorem can be extended to this case as well. Remarkably, a solution to the scalar gravity cosmological constant problem has been proposed, where the key is a very small violation of the scalar equivalence principle, which can be elegantly formulated as a particular type of deformation of the CFT. In the dual AdS picture this involves implementing Goldberger-Wise radion stabilization where the Goldberger-Wise field is a pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson. In quantum gravity however, global symmetries protecting pNGBs are not expected to be fundamental. We provide a natural six-dimensional gauge theory origin for this global symmetry and show that the violation of the equivalence principle and the size of the vacuum energy seen by scalar gravity can naturally be exponentially small. Our solution may be of interest for study of non-supersymmetric CFTs in the spontaneously broken phase.

Self-tuning and the derivation of a class of scalar-tensor theories

We have recently proposed a special class of scalar-tensor theories known as the Fab Four. These arose from attempts to analyze the cosmological constant problem within the context of Horndeski's most general scalar-tensor theory. The Fab Four together give rise to a model of self-tuning, with the relevant solutions evading Weinberg's no-go theorem by relaxing the condition of Poincar\'e invariance in the scalar sector. The Fab Four are made up of four geometric terms in the action with each term containing a free potential function of the scalar field. In this paper we rigorously derive this model from the general model of Horndeski, proving that the Fab Four represents the only classical scalar-tensor theory of this type that has any hope of tackling the cosmological constant problem. We present the full equations of motion for this theory, and give an heuristic argument to suggest that one might be able to keep radiative corrections under control. We also give the Fab Four in terms of the potentials presented in Deffayet et al's version of Horndeski.

Codimension-two branes in six-dimensional supergravity and the cosmological constant problem

We investigate in detail recent suggestions that codimension-two braneworlds in six dimensional supergravity might circumvent Weinberg's no-go theorem for self-tuning of the cosmological constant. The branes are given finite thickness in order to regularize mild singularities in their vicinity, and we allow them to have an arbitrary equation of state. We study perturbatively the time evolution of the solutions by solving the equations of motion linearized around a static background. Even allowing for the most general possibility of warping and nonconical singularities, the geometry does not relax to a static solution when the brane stress-energies are perturbed. Rather, both the internal and external geometries become time-dependent, and the system does not exhibit any self-tuning behavior.

Football Shaped Extra Dimensions and the Absence of Self-Tuning

There have been some recent claims that brane-worlds of co-dimension two in a 6D bulk with compact extra dimensions may lead to self-tuning of the effective 4D cosmological constant. Here we show that if a phase transition occurs on a flat brane, so as to change its tension, then the brane will not remain flat. In other words, there is really no self-tuning in such models, which can in fact be understood in four-dimensional terms and are therefore subject to Weinberg's no-go theorem.

Gravitational Lorentz violations and adjustment of the cosmological constant in asymmetrically warped spacetimes

We investigate spacetimes in which the speed of light along flat 4D sections varies over the extra dimensions due to different warp factors for the space and the time coordinates (``asymmetrically warped'' spacetimes). The main property of such spaces is that while the induced metric is flat, implying Lorentz invariant particle physics on a brane, bulk gravitational effects will cause apparent violations of Lorentz invariance and of causality from the brane observer's point of view. An important experimentally verifiable consequence of this is that gravitational waves may travel with a speed different from the speed of light on the brane, and possibly even faster. We find the most general spacetimes of this sort, which are given by AdS-Schwarzschild or AdS-Reissner-Nordstrom black holes, assuming the simplest possible sources in the bulk. Due to the gravitational Lorentz violations these models do not have an ordinary Lorentz invariant effective description, and thus provide a possible way around Weinberg's no-go theorem for the adjustment of the cosmological constant. Indeed we show that the cosmological constant may relax in such theories by the adjustment of the mass and the charge of the black hole. The black hole singularity in these solutions can be protected by a horizon, but the existence of a horizon requires some exotic energy densities on the brane. We investigate the cosmological expansion of these models and speculate that it may provide an explanation for the accelerating Universe, provided that the timescale for the adjustment is shorter than the Hubble time. In this case the accelerating Universe would be a manifestation of gravitational Lorentz violations in extra dimensions.