THE CONFORMAL FACTOR AND THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
- 10 October 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by World Scientific Pub Co Pte Ltd in International Journal of Modern Physics A
- Vol. 05 (19) , 3811-3829
- https://doi.org/10.1142/s0217751x9000163x
Abstract
The issue of the conformal factor in quantum gravity is examined for Lorentzian signature spacetimes. In Euclidean signature, the “wrong” sign of the conformal action makes the path integral undefined, but in Lorentzian signature this sign is tied to the instability of gravity and once this is accounted for the path integral should be well-defined. In this approach it is not obvious that the Baum-Hawking-Coleman mechanism for suppression of the cosmological constant functions. It is conceivable that since the multiuniverse system exhibits an instability for positive cosmological constant, the dynamics should force the system to zero cosmological constant.Keywords
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