Vacuum energy sequestering and conformal symmetry

TL;DR

This paper explores how embedding vacuum energy sequestering into a local quantum theory reveals a conformal field theory structure, linking a small cosmological constant to spontaneous conformal symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It demonstrates that localizing the sequestering mechanism results in a conformal field theory with a dilaton, providing a new perspective on the cosmological constant problem.

Findings

The local version of the sequestering mechanism leads to a conformal field theory.

A small cosmological constant emerges naturally from conformal symmetry breaking.

The dilaton field plays a central role in the theory's structure.

Abstract

In a series of recent papers Kaloper and Padilla proposed a mechanism to sequester standard model vacuum contributions to the cosmological constant. We study the consequences of embedding their proposal into a fully local quantum theory. In the original work, the bare cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and a scaling parameter $\lambda$ are introduced as global fields. We find that in the local case the resulting Lagrangian is that of a spontaneously broken conformal field theory where $\lambda$ plays the role of the dilaton. A vanishing or a small cosmological constant is thus a consequence of the underlying conformal field theory structure.