Primordial Inflation and Present-Day Cosmological Constant from Extra Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where extra compactified dimensions and Casimir energy density explain both primordial inflation and the current cosmological constant, linking fundamental scales to observable universe properties.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical gravity model using Casimir energy in extra dimensions to unify inflation and dark energy phenomena.

Findings

Predicts the size of extra dimensions as ~0.09 mm.

Derives the present-day cosmological constant from vacuum fluctuations.

Connects the weak interaction scale to cosmological observations.

Abstract

A semiclassical gravitation model is outlined which makes use of the Casimir energy density of vacuum fluctuations in extra compactified dimensions to produce the present-day cosmological constant as rho_LAMBDA ~ M^8/M_P^4, where M_P is the Planck scale and M is the weak interaction scale. The model is based on (4+D)-dimensional gravity, with D = 2 extra dimensions with radius b(t) curled up at the ADD length scale b_0 = M_P/M^2 ~ 0.1 mm. Vacuum fluctuations in the compactified space perturb b_0 very slightly, generating a small present-day cosmological constant. The radius of the compactified dimensions is predicted to be b_0 = k^{1/4} 0.09 mm (or equivalently M = 2.4 TeV/k^{1/8}), where the Casimir energy density is k/b^4. Primordial inflation of our three-dimensional space occurs as in the cosmology of the ADD model as the inflaton b(t), which initially is on the order of 1/M ~ 10^{-17} cm, rolls down its potential to b_0.