One Loop Calculation of Cosmological Constant in a Scale Invariant Theory

TL;DR

This paper calculates the cosmological constant in a scale-invariant scalar field theory, demonstrating that one-loop corrections lead to a finite, nonzero value through a novel symmetry breaking mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compute the cosmological constant in a scale-invariant framework, showing finiteness and the role of cosmological symmetry breaking.

Findings

One-loop corrections yield a finite cosmological constant.

Scale invariance prevents a cosmological constant at the classical level.

Cosmological symmetry breaking generates a nonzero cosmological constant.

Abstract

We compute the cosmological constant in a scale invariant scalar field theory. The gravitational action is also suitably modified to respect scale invariance. Due to scale invariance the theory does not admit a cosmological constant term. The scale invariance is broken by a recently introduced mechanism called cosmological symmetry breaking. This leads to a nonzero cosmological constant. We compute the one loop corrections to the cosmological constant and show that it is finite.