Issues with vacuum energy as the origin of dark energy

TL;DR

This paper challenges the idea that vacuum energy from quantum field theory explains dark energy, proposing instead that vacuum energy may be null based on new definitions, scalar field condensation studies, and Standard Model insights.

Contribution

It introduces a frame-independent vacuum definition, argues against large vacuum energy, and predicts Higgs condensate confinement scales, offering a novel perspective on dark energy origin.

Findings

Arguments against large vacuum energy from quantum field theory.

Proposed null vacuum energy based on new definitions and Standard Model insights.

Prediction of Higgs condensate confinement scale near electroweak gauge bosons.

Abstract

In this letter we address some of the issues raised in the literature about the conflict between a large vacuum energy density, apriori predicted by quantum field theory, and the observed dark energy which must be the energy of vacuum or include it. We present a number of arguments against this claim and in favour of a null vacuum energy. They are based on the following arguments: A new definition for the vacuum in quantum field theory as a frame-independent coherent state; Results from a detailed study of condensation of scalar fields in FLRW background performed in a previous work; And our present knowledge about the Standard Model of particle physics. One of the predictions of these arguments is the confinement of nonzero expectation value of Higgs field to scales roughly comparable with the width of electroweak gauge bosons or shorter. If the observation of Higgs by the LHC is confirmed, accumulation of relevant events and their energy dependence in near future should allow to measure the spatial extend of the Higgs condensate.