A naturally light dilaton

TL;DR

This paper explores conditions under which a naturally light dilaton can emerge from spontaneously broken scale invariance, offering a potential dynamical solution to the cosmological constant problem.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical framework detailing how a light dilaton can arise naturally, addressing a key challenge in scale invariance and gravity theories.

Findings

Conditions for light dilaton emergence identified

Connection to solving the cosmological constant problem established

Theoretical model demonstrating dilaton dynamics presented

Abstract

Goldstone's theorem does not apply straightforwardly to the case of spontaneously broken scale invariance. We elucidate under what conditions a light scalar degree of freedom, identifiable with the dilaton, can naturally arise. Our construction can be considered an explicit dynamical solution to the cosmological constant problem in the scalar version of gravity.