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| Science Forum Index » Fractals Science Forum » Vacuum Energy Density Crisis II... |
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| Author |
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| Knecht... |
 Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:41 pm |
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Guest
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The vacuum energy density of QFT is calculated to be on the order of
10^91 g/cc, while the vacuum energy density estimate based on
cosmological/gravitational considerations is on the order of 10^-29 g/
cc.
That is a discrepancy of about 120 orders of magnitude!
Frank Wilczek has commented: "Since vacuum energy density is central
to both fundamental physics and cosmology, and yet extremely poorly
understood, experimental research into its nature must be regarded as
a top priority for physical science."
He has also warned that solving the VED enigma "might require
inventing entirely new ideas, and abandoning old ones we thought to
be well-established."
With Wilczek's comments as motivation, I have a suggestion for how
one might take a first step toward resolving the VED crisis. A
discrete
fractal paradigm describing nature's fundamental structure and
organization, see www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw , proposes a revised
Planck mass that is approximately 10^19 times smaller than the
conventional Planck mass, and is just below the proton mass
( arXiv:astro-ph/0701006v2 ). Since the Planck mass is raised to the
4th power in the standard HEP calculation of the VED, the discrete
fractal paradigm's smaller value leads to a reduction in the
magnitude of the VED by a factor of 10^76.
Well, 76 orders of magnitude is not much compared to a disparity of
120 orders of magnitude, but it is a start and it is probably in the
right direction. Yes, it is a radical approach, but given the
severity of the crisis and the wisdom of Wilczek's warning that
radical new
ideas might be required, maybe the discrete fractal paradigm is worth
taking a look at.
At the other (cosmological) end of the spectrum the discrete fractal
paradigm predicts that the VED in this context is roughly 38 orders
of magnitude larger than the conventional value. Therefore another 38
orders of magnitude are potentially removed from the discrepancy,
leaving a residual discrepancy of about 5 orders of magnitude.
Therefore we can go from a discrepancy of 120 orders of magnitude to
a discrepancy of 4.8 orders of magnitude using basic scaling
arguments
of the discrete fractal paradigm.
If one wants to be inventive, it looks like using the mass of an e^
+e^- pair rather than the Planck mass for the subatomic VED removes
the remaining discrepancy, but that is tentative and more speculative
at this point.
Yours in science,
Knecht
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw |
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