Relaxation of vacuum energy in q-theory

TL;DR

This paper extends q-theory by incorporating dissipation, showing that decay of the de-Sitter vacuum may be essential for resolving the cosmological constant problem dynamically.

Contribution

It introduces irreversible processes into q-theory, exploring their impact on vacuum evolution and the conditions for Minkowski or de-Sitter asymptotes.

Findings

Dissipation leads to diverse vacuum evolution scenarios.

Minkowski vacuum still requires fine-tuning of initial conditions.

Decay of de-Sitter vacuum may be necessary for solving the cosmological constant problem.

Abstract

The $q$-theory formalism aims to describe the thermodynamics and dynamics of the deep quantum vacuum. The thermodynamics leads to an exact cancellation of the quantum-field zero-point-energies in equilibrium, which partly solves the main cosmological constant problem. But, with reversible dynamics, the spatially-flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe asymptotically approaches the Minkowski vacuum only if the Big Bang already started out in an initial equilibrium state. Here, we extend $q$-theory by introducing dissipation from irreversible processes. Neglecting the possible instability of a de-Sitter vacuum, we obtain different scenarios with either a de-Sitter asymptote or collapse to a final singularity. The Minkowski asymptote still requires fine-tuning of the initial conditions. This suggests that, within the $q$-theory approach, the decay of the de-Sitter vacuum is a necessary condition for the dynamical solution of the cosmological constant problem.