Logarithmically Divergent Vacuum Energy in Effective Field Theory

Jonathan Sullivan-Wood; Craig Pryor

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.21320

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Logarithmically Divergent Vacuum Energy in Effective Field Theory

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Logarithmically Divergent Vacuum Energy in Effective Field Theory

Jonathan Sullivan-Wood and Craig Pryor

ArXiv.org

Cornell University

07/28/2025

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.21320

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Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The vacuum energy density due to a single quantum field diverges quarticly with the ultraviolet cutoff $Λ$, in wild disagreement with the value implied by cosmological observations. We show that in effective field theories containing bosons and fermions the requirement of a Lorentz invariant vacuum makes any divergence faster than logarithmic exponentially unlikely. We show this by generating an ensemble of mass spectra by Monte Carlo, and find that the probability distribution function for the vacuum energy is a gaussian centered on zero with a width that grows only logarithmically with the ultraviolet cutoff.

Physics - High Energy Physics - Theory

Details

Title: Subtitle: Logarithmically Divergent Vacuum Energy in Effective Field Theory
Creators: Jonathan Sullivan-Wood
Craig Pryor
Resource Type: Preprint
Publication Details: ArXiv.org
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.21320
ISSN: 2331-8422
Publisher: Cornell University; Ithaca, New York
Language: English
Date posted: 07/28/2025
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984927080402771

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