Dark Energy and Condensate Stars: Casimir Energy in the Large
Abstract
Description
Vacuum fluctuations and the Casimir effect are considered in a cosmological setting. It is suggested that the dark energy, which recent observations suggest make up 73% of our universe, is vacuum energy due to a causal boundary effect at the cosmological horizon. After a discussion of the similarities and differences between material boundaries in flat spacetime and causal horizons in general relativity, a simple model with a purely vacuum energy de Sitter interior and Schwarzschild exterior, separated by a thin boundary layer is outlined. The boundary layer is a quantum transition region which replaces the event horizons of the classical de Sitter and Schwarzschild solutions, through which the vacuum energy changes.
Contributed talk at the Sixth Workshop on 'Quantum Field Theory Under The Influence Of External Conditions' held at the Univ. of Oklahoma, September 15-19, 2003, to be published in the Proceedings by Rinton Press (2004)
Contributed talk at the Sixth Workshop on 'Quantum Field Theory Under The Influence Of External Conditions' held at the Univ. of Oklahoma, September 15-19, 2003, to be published in the Proceedings by Rinton Press (2004)