Semi-classical gravity in de Sitter spacetime and the cosmological constant

Abstract

We show that there exist solutions to the semi-classical gravity equations in de Sitter spacetime sourced by the renormalised stress-energy tensor of a free Klein-Gordon field. For the massless scalar, solutions exist for every possible value of the cosmological constant, provided that the curvature coupling parameter is chosen appropriately. In the massive case, imposing Wald's axioms for the renormalised stress-energy tensor, the mass of the field and the curvature coupling constraint the allowed values of $Λ$. For a massive, minimally coupled field, a "small $Λ$" solution is found, fixed by the relation $m^2 \simeq 4.89707 \times 10^{12} Λ$. We emphasise that in this framework, the {\it old} cosmological constant problem in its standard formulation plays no rôle, in the sense that there are no bare-vs-physical values of $Λ$, for only the physical $Λ$ appears in the semi-classical equations, and the value that it is allowed to take is fixed or restricted by the equations themselves. We explain that there is an important relation between the cosmological constant problem and the violation of Wald's stress-energy renormalisation axioms.