The Cosmological Constant From The Viewpoint Of String Theory

TL;DR

This paper explores the challenge of explaining the smallness of the cosmological constant within string theory, examining the potential role of unbroken supersymmetry in resolving this fundamental issue.

Contribution

It analyzes the cosmological constant problem from a string theory perspective and discusses the possibility of interpreting the universe through a vacuum state with unbroken supersymmetry.

Findings

Standard low energy physics lacks a natural explanation for a small vacuum energy.

Modifying the framework to explain the small cosmological constant is highly challenging.

Unbroken supersymmetry may offer a potential avenue for understanding the vacuum energy problem.

Abstract

The mystery of the cosmological constant is probably the most pressing obstacle to significantly improving the models of elementary particle physics derived from string theory. The problem arises because in the standard framework of low energy physics, there appears to be no natural explanation for vanishing or extreme smallness of the vacuum energy, while on the other hand it is very difficult to modify this framework in a sensible way. In seeking to resolve this problem, one naturally wonders if the real world can somehow be interpreted in terms of a vacuum state with unbroken supersymmetry.