# Semi-classical gravity in de Sitter spacetime and the cosmological constant

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates solutions to semi-classical gravity equations in de Sitter space with a quantum scalar field, showing how the cosmological constant is constrained by quantum effects and renormalisation conditions.

## Contribution

It provides new solutions to semi-classical Einstein equations with quantum fields, clarifying the role of the cosmological constant without the traditional fine-tuning problem.

## Key findings

- Solutions exist for all cosmological constants with massless fields.
- Massive fields impose constraints linking mass and cosmological constant.
- The framework eliminates the traditional cosmological constant problem.

## Abstract

We show that there exist solutions to the semi-classical gravity equations in de Sitter spacetime sourced by the renormalised stress-energy tensor of a free Klein-Gordon field. For the massless scalar, solutions exist for every possible value of the cosmological constant, provided that the curvature coupling parameter is chosen appropriately. In the massive case, imposing Wald's axioms for the renormalised stress-energy tensor, the mass of the field and the curvature coupling constraint the allowed values of $\Lambda$. For a massive, minimally coupled field, a "small $\Lambda$" solution is found, fixed by the relation $m^2 \simeq 4.89707 \times 10^{12} \Lambda$. We emphasise that in this framework, the {\it old} cosmological constant problem in its standard formulation plays no r\^ole, in the sense that there are no bare-vs-physical values of $\Lambda$, for only the physical $\Lambda$ appears in the semi-classical equations, and the value that it is allowed to take is fixed or restricted by the equations themselves. We explain that there is an important relation between the cosmological constant problem and the violation of Wald's stress-energy renormalisation axioms.