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Phys. Rev. D 69, 123515 (2004) [13 pages]

Chaotic scalar fields as models for dark energy

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Christian Beck*
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030, USA

Received 20 October 2003; revised 14 January 2004; published 22 June 2004

We consider stochastically quantized self-interacting scalar fields as suitable models to generate dark energy in the Universe. Second quantization effects lead to new and unexpected phenomena if the self-interaction strength is strong. The stochastically quantized dynamics can degenerate to a chaotic dynamics conjugated to a Bernoulli shift in fictitious time, and the right amount of vacuum energy density can be generated without fine-tuning. It is numerically observed that the scalar field dynamics distinguishes fundamental parameters such as the electroweak and strong coupling constants as corresponding to local minima in the dark energy landscape. Chaotic fields can offer possible solutions to the cosmological coincidence problem, as well as to the problem of uniqueness of vacua.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.69.123515
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.69.123515
PACS:
98.80.-k, 03.70.+k, 05.45.Jn

*Permanent address: School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, U.K. Electronic address: c.beck@qmul.ac.uk; URL: http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/beck