Abstract
In order to resolve the cosmological constant problem, the notion of reference frame is re-examined at the quantum level. By using a quantum non-linear sigma model (Q-NLSM), a theory of quantum spacetime reference frame is proposed. The underlying mathematical structure is a new geometry endowed with intrinsic second central moment (variance) or even higher moments of its coordinates, which generalizes the classical Riemannian geometry based on only first moment (mean) of its coordinates. The second central moment of the coordinates directly modifies the quadratic form distance which is the foundation of the Riemannian geometry. At semi-classical level, the second central moment introduces a flow which continuously deforms the Riemannian geometry driven by its classical Ricci curvature, which is known as the Ricci flow. A generalized equivalence principle of quantum version is also proposed to interpret the new geometry endowed with at least second moment. As a consequence, the spacetime is stabilized against quantum fluctuation, and the cosmological constant problem is resolved within the framework. With an isotropic positive curvature initial condition, the long flow time solution of the Ricci flow exists, the accelerating expansion universe at cosmic scale is an observable effect of the spacetime deformation of the normalized Ricci flow. A deceleration parameter − 0.67 consistent with measurement is obtained by using the reduced volume method introduced by Perelman. Effective theory of gravity within the framework is also discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Weinberg, S.: The cosmological constant problem. Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 1 (1989)
Perlmutter, S., et al.: (Supernova Cosmology Project), Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 high redshift supernovae. Astrophys. J. 517, 565 (1999). arXiv:astro-ph/9812133
Riess, A.G., et al.: (Supernova Search Team), Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant. Astron. J. 116, 1009 (1998). arXiv:astro-ph/9805201
Ade, P.A.R. et al.: (Planck), Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 594, A13 (2016), arXiv:1502.01589
Bousso, R.: The cosmological constant. General Relativ. Gravit. 40, 607 (2008). arXiv:0708.4231
Amendola, L., Tsujikawa, S.: Dark Energy: Theory and Observations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2010)
Miao, L., Xiao-Dong, L., Shuang, W., Yi, W.: Dark energy. Commun. Theor. Phys. 56, 525 (2011)
Martin, J.: Everything you always wanted to know about the cosmological constant problem (but were afraid to ask. Comptes Rendus Physique 13, 566 (2012). arXiv:1205.3365
Sola, J.: Cosmological constant and vacuum energy: old and new ideas. J. Phys. 453, 012015 (2013)
Polchinski, J.: The cosmological constant and the string landscape. In: The Quantum Structure of Space and Time: Proceedings of the 23rd Solvay Conference on Physics. Brussels, Belgium. 1–3 December 2005, pp. 216–236 (2006). arXiv:hep-th/0603249
Massó, E.: The weight of vacuum fluctuations. Phys. Lett. B 679, 433 (2009). arXiv:0902.4318
Rovelli, C.: Relational quantum mechanics. Int. J. Theor. Phys. 35, 1637 (1996). arXiv:quant-ph/9609002
Luo, M.J.: The cosmological constant problem and re-interpretation of time. Nucl. Phys. 884, 344 (2014)
Luo, M.J.: Dark energy from quantum uncertainty of distant clock. J. High Energy Phys. 2015, 1 (2015)
Luo, M.J.: The cosmological constant problem and quantum spacetime reference frame. Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 27, 1850081 (2018). arXiv:1507.08755
Hamilton, R.S.: Three-manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. J. Differ. Geom. 17, 255 (1982)
Hamilton, R.S., et al.: Four-manifolds with positive curvature operator. J. Differ. Geom. 24, 153 (1986)
Hamilton, R.S.: The Ricci flow on surfaces. Contemp. Math. 71, 237 (1988)
Perelman, G.: The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications, arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0211159 (2002)
Perelman, G.: Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds. arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0303109 (2003)
Perelman, G.: Finite extinction time for the solutions to the Ricci flow on certain three-manifolds. arXiv preprint arXiv:math.DG/0307245 (2003)
Chow, B., Knopf, D.: The Ricci Flow: An Introduction: An Introduction, vol. 1. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2004)
Topping, P.: Lectures on the Ricci flow, vol. 325. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2006)
Chow, B., Lu, P., Ni, L.: Hamilton’s Ricci flow, vol. 77. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2006)
Morgan, J., Tian, G., Flow, R.: The Poincaré Conjecture Clay Mathematics Monographs. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2007)
Müller, R.: Differential Harnack Inequalities and the Ricci Flow. European Mathematical Society, Zurich (2006)
Chow, B., Chu, S.-C., Glickenstein, D., Guenther, C., Isenberg, J., Ivey, T., Knopf, D., Lu, P., Luo, F., Ni, L.: The Ricci Flow: Techniques and Applications. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2007)
Gutperle, M., Headrick, M., Minwalla, S., Schomerus, V.: Spacetime energy decreases under world-sheet RG flow. J. High Energy Phys. 2003, 073 (2003)
Bakas, I.: Geometric flows and (some of) their physical applications. Bulg. J. Phys. 33, 091 (2006). arXiv:hep-th/0511057
Headrick, M., Wiseman, T.: Ricci flow and black holes. Class. Quantum Gravity 23, 6683 (2006)
Samuel, J., Chowdhury, S.R.: Geometric flows and black hole entropy. Class. Quantum Gravity 24, F47 (2007)
Solodukhin, S.N.: Entanglement entropy and the Ricci flow. Phys. Lett. B 646, 268 (2007)
Tseytlin, A.A.: Sigma model renormalization group flow, “central charge” action, and Perelman’s entropy. Phys. Rev. D 75, 064024 (2007)
Woolgar, E.: Some applications of Ricci flow in physics. Can. J. Phys. 86, 645 (2008)
Carfora, M.: Renormalization group and the Ricci flow. Milan J. Math. 78, 319 (2010)
Headrick, M., Kitchen, S., Wiseman, T.: A new approach to static numerical relativity and its application to Kaluza-Klein black holes. Class. Quantum Gravity 27, 035002 (2010)
Figueras, P., Lucietti, J., Wiseman, T.: Ricci solitons, Ricci flow and strongly coupled CFT in the Schwarzschild Unruh or Boulware vacua. Class. Quantum Gravity 28, 215018 (2011)
Ivancevic, V.G., Ivancevic, T.T.: Ricci flow and nonlinear reaction-diffusion systems in biology, chemistry, and physics. Nonlinear Dyn. 65, 35 (2011)
Carfora, M., Marzuoli, A.: Smoothing out spatially closed cosmologies. Phys. Rev. Lett. 53, 2445 (1984)
Carfora, M., Marzuoli, A.: Model geometries in the space of Riemannian structures and Hamilton’s flow. Class. Quantum Gravity 5, 659 (1988)
Carfora, M., Piotrkowska, K.: Renormalization group approach to relativistic cosmology. Phys. Rev. D 52, 4393 (1995)
Piotrkowska, K.: Averaging, renormalization group and criticality in cosmology. arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9508047 (1995)
Carfora, M., Buchert, T.: Ricci flow deformation of cosmological initial data sets. In: Mangana, N., Monaco, R., Rionero, S. (eds.) 14th International Conference on Waves and Stability in Continuous Media, pp. 118–127. World Scientific, Singapore (2008)
Friedan, D.: Nonlinear models in \(2+\varepsilon\) dimensions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 1057 (1980a)
Friedan, D.: Nonlinear models in \(2+ \varepsilon\) dimensions. Ann. Phys. 163, 318 (1980b)
Omero, C., Percacci, R.: Generalized non-linear \(\sigma\)-models in curved space and spontaneous compactification. Nucl. Phys. B 165, 351 (1980)
Giddings, S.B., Marolf, D., Hartle, J.B.: Observables in effective gravity. Phys. Rev. D 74, 064018 (2006). arXiv:hep-th/0512200
Jaffe, R.L.: Casimir effect and the quantum vacuum. Phys. Rev. D 72, 021301 (2005)
Gell-Mann, M., Lévy, M.: The axial vector current in beta decay. Il Nuovo Cimento 16, 705 (1960)
Zinn-Justin, J.: Quantum Field Theory and Critical Phenomena. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2002)
Ketov, S.V.: Quantum Non-linear Sigma-Models: From Quantum Field Theory to Supersymmetry, Conformal Field Theory, Black Holes and Strings. Springer, Berlin (2013)
De Rham, C., Tolley, A.J., Zhou, S.Y.: Non-compact nonlinear sigma models. Phys. Lett. B 760, 579 (2015)
Percacci, R.: Asymptotic safety in gravity and sigma models, arXiv preprint arXiv:0910.4951 (2009)
Codello, A., Percacci, R.: Fixed points of nonlinear sigma models in d\(>\)2. Phys. Lett. B 672, 280 (2009)
Wellegehausen, B.H., Körner, D., Wipf, A.: Asymptotic safety on the lattice: the nonlinear O (N) sigma model. Ann. Phys. 349, 374 (2014)
Zalaletdinov, R.: The averaging problem in cosmology and macroscopic gravity. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 23, 1173 (2008). arXiv:0801.3256
Paranjape, A.: The averaging problem in cosmology, PhD thesis, TIFR, Mumbai, Dept. Astron. Astrophys. (2009), arXiv:0906.3165
Guenther, C., Oliynyk, T.A.: Stability of the (two-loop) renormalization group flow for nonlinear sigma models. Lett. Math. Phys. 84, 149 (2008)
Gimre, K., Guenther, C., Isenberg, J.: Second-order renormalization group flow of three-dimensional homogeneous geometries. arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.6507 (2012)
Page, D.N., Wootters, W.K.: Evolution without evolution: dynamics described by stationary observables. Phys. Rev. D 27, 2885 (1983)
Moreva, E., Brida, G., Gramegna, M., Giovannetti, V., Maccone, L., Genovese, M.: Time from quantum entanglement: an experimental illustration. Phys. Rev. A 89, 052122 (2014). arXiv:1310.4691
Phillips, N.G., Hu, B.: Vacuum energy density fluctuations in Minkowski and Casimir states via smeared quantum fields and point separation. Phys. Rev. D 62, 084017 (2000)
DeTurck, D.M., et al.: Deforming metrics in the direction of their Ricci tensors. J. Differ. Geom. 18, 157 (1983)
Cao, X., Zhang, Q.S.: The conjugate heat equation and Ancient solutions of the Ricci flow. Adv. Math. 228, 2891 (2010)
Yokota, T.: On the asymptotic reduced volume of the Ricci flow. Ann. Glob. Anal. Geom. 37, 263 (2010)
Cao, H.-D., Hamilton, R.S., Ilmanen, T.: Gaussian densities and stability for some Ricci solitons, arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0404165 (2004)
Cao, H.-D.: Recent progress on Ricci solitons, arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2006 (2009)
Feldman, M., Ilmanen, T., Ni, L.: Entropy and reduced distance for Ricci expanders. J. Geom. Anal. 15, 49 (2005)
Xu, G.: An equation linking W-entropy with reduced volume, Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal) 2017, 49 (2017), arXiv:math.DG/1211.6354
Milgrom, M.: MOND theory. Can. J. Phys. 93, 107 (2015). arXiv:1404.7661
Clowe, D., Bradac, M., Gonzalez, A.H., Markevitch, M., Randall, S.W., Jones, C., Zaritsky, D.: A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter. Astrophys. J. 648, L109 (2006). arXiv:astro-ph/0608407
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant No. 11205149, and the Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangsu University for Young Scholars under Grant No. 15JDG153.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Luo, M.J. Ricci Flow Approach to the Cosmological Constant Problem. Found Phys 51, 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-021-00405-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-021-00405-4