A Cosmological Constant from Gauge Field Instantons?

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the observed cosmological constant could originate from gauge field instantons at a scale around 10^3 TeV, assuming gravity's decoupling from vacuum energy breaks down at this scale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis linking gauge instantons and the cosmological constant at a specific energy scale, providing a potential explanation for dark energy.

Findings

The scale M_g is estimated to be around 10^3 TeV.

Instanton-induced shifts could account for the observed vacuum energy.

Gravity's interaction with vacuum energy may break down at M_g.

Abstract

Although all interactions in the Standard Model generate nonzero shifts of the vacuum energy and pressure, gravity does not interact with them. Assuming (i) that the reason why it is so breaks down at some scale $M_g$ and that (ii) the instanton-induced shifts at such scale generate the observed cosmological constant, we found that it then should happen at a (surprisingly small) scale $M_g\sim 10^3 TeV$.