Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0605242

From: Alexander Vilenkin [view email]

Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 22:10:41 GMT (3kb)

The vacuum energy crisis

Authors: Alexander Vilenkin

Comments: 4 pages, no figures; invited "perspective" article in "Science" (4 May 2006)

The smallness of the vacuum energy density and its near coincidence with the average matter density of the universe are naturally explained by anthropic selection. An alternative explanation, based on the cyclic model of Steinhardt and Turok, does not address the coincidence problem and is therefore less convincing. This article appeared in ``Science'' (4 May 2006) as a ``perspective'' for Steinhardt and Turok's paper in the same issue (astro-ph/0605173).

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605242