A New Interpretation of Einstein's Cosmological Constant

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified scalar-tensor theory of gravity incorporating quantum symmetry breaking to reinterpret Einstein's cosmological constant, suggesting it as a graviton mass with implications for gravity's range.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scalar-tensor framework linking the cosmological constant to graviton mass and incorporates hadron physics into gravitational theory.

Findings

The cosmological constant can take two values due to symmetry breaking.

Gravity exhibits both long- and short-range forces in this model.

The theory connects quantum symmetry breaking with gravitational phenomena.

Abstract

A new approach to the cosmological constant problem is proposed by modifying Einstein's theory of general relativity, using instead a scalar-tensor theory of gravitation. This theory of gravity crucially incorporates the concept of quantum symmetry breaking. The role of the cosmological constant $\lambda$ as a graviton mass in the weak-field limit is necessarily utilized. Because $\lambda$ takes on two values as a broken symmetry, so does the graviton mass -- one of which cannot be zero. Gravity now exhibits both long- and short-range forces, by introducing hadron bags into strong interaction physics using a nonlinear, self-interacting scalar $\sigma$-field coupled to the gravitational Lagrangian.