Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The cosmological constant is back

1995; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 27; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/bf02108229

1572-9532

Lawrence M. Krauss, Michael S. Turner,

Relativity and Gravitational Theory

A diverse set of observations now compellingly suggest that Universe possesses a nonzero cosmological constant. In the context of quantum-field theory a cosmological constant corresponds to the energy density of the vacuum, and the wanted value for the cosmological constant corresponds to a very tiny vacuum energy density. We discuss future observational tests for a cosmological constant as well as the fundamental theoretical challenges---and opportunities---that this poses for particle physics and for extending our understanding of the evolution of the Universe back to the earliest moments.