Quantum gravity and the cosmological constant: Lessons from two-dimensional dilaton gravity
(2013) Physical Review D — Vol. 87, n° 8, p. 84016 (2013)
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- Authors
Govaerts, Jan 
- Abstract
- In the investigation and resolution of the cosmological constant problem, the inclusion of the dynamics of quantum gravity can be a crucial step. In this work we suggest that the quantum constraints in a canonical theory of gravity can provide a way of addressing the issue: we consider the case of two-dimensional quantum dilaton gravity nonminimally coupled to a U(1) gauge field, in the presence of an arbitrary number of massless scalar matter fields, intended also as an effective description of highly symmetrical higher-dimensional models. We are able to quantize the system nonperturbatively and obtain an expression for the cosmological constant Λ in terms of the quantum physical states, in a generalization of the usual quantum field theory approach. We discuss the role of the classical and quantum gravitational contributions to Λ and present a partial spectrum of values for it.
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Citations
Govaerts, J., & Zonetti, S. (2013). Quantum gravity and the cosmological constant: Lessons from two-dimensional dilaton gravity. Physical Review D, 87(8), 84016. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.084016 (Original work published 2013)