The following article is a reformatted version of a
preprint obtained from the LANL astro-ph preprint server
(http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0004075). The
article was written on invitation of the refereed online journal
Living Reviews in Relativity and the final article, an enhanced
HTML version, is now at
http://www.livingreviews.org/Articles/index.html , where
it will be regularly updated by its author.
THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
Sean M. Carroll
Enrico
Fermi Institute and
Department of Physics
University of Chicago
5640 S. Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637 USA
e-mail:
carroll@theory.uchicago.edu
http://pancake.uchicago.edu/~carroll/
Abstract. This is a review of the physics and cosmology of the
cosmological constant. Focusing on recent developments, I present a
pedagogical overview of cosmology in the presence of a
cosmological constant, observational constraints on its
magnitude, and the physics of a small (and potentially nonzero)
vacuum energy.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
- Truth and Beauty
- Introducing the Cosmological Constant
- Vacuum Energy
- COSMOLOGY WITH A COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
- Cosmological Parameters
- Model Universes and their Fates
- Surveying the Universe
- Structure Formation
- OBSERVATIONAL TESTS
- Type Ia Supernovae
- Cosmic Microwave Background
- Matter Density
- Gravitational Lensing
- Other Tests
- PHYSICS ISSUES
- Supersymmetry
- String Theory
- The Anthropic Principle
- Miscellaneous Adjustment Mechanisms
- Other Sources of Dark Energy
- CONCLUSIONS: THE PREPOSTEROUS UNIVERSE
- REFERENCES
