The elastic vacuum

TL;DR

This paper proposes that quantum fluctuations of black hole microstates, stretched by cosmological expansion, generate vacuum energy that could explain inflation and the Hubble tension.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where vacuum fluctuations are stretched by anti-trapped surfaces, linking quantum gravity effects to cosmological vacuum energy.

Findings

Vacuum energy arises from stretched quantum fluctuations during rapid Hubble deceleration.

Inflation-scale vacuum energy occurs when GUT particles become nonrelativistic.

Additional vacuum energy during transition from radiation to dust may resolve Hubble constant tension.

Abstract

The quantum gravity vacuum must contain virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates. These extended-size fluctuations get `crushed' when a closed trapped surface forms, and turn into on-shell `fuzzball' states that resolve the information puzzle. We argue that these same fluctuations can get `stretched' by the anti-trapped surfaces in an expanding cosmology, and that this stretching generates vacuum energy. The stretching happen when the Hubble deceleration reduces quickly, which happens whenever the pressure drops quickly. We thus get an inflation-scale vacuum energy when the heavy GUTS particles become nonrelativistic, and again a small vacuum energy when the radiation phase turns to dust. The expansion law in the radiation phase does not allow stretching, in agreement with the observed irrelevance of vacuum energy in that phase. The extra energy induced when the radiation phase changes to dust may explain the tension in the Hubble constant between low and high redshift data.