Reformulation of the Cosmological Constant Problem

Understand

The standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem is based on one critical assumption---the spacetime is homogeneous and isotropic, which is true only on cosmological scales.

• However, this problem is caused by extremely small scale (Planck scale) quantum fluctuations and at that scale, the spacetime is highly inhomogeneous and anisotropic.
• The homogeneous Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker metric used in the standard formulation is inadequate to describe such small scale dynamics of the spacetime.
• In this Letter, we reformulate the cosmological constant problem by using a general inhomogeneous metric.