Deconstructing the Cosmological Constant

Abstract

Deconstruction provides a novel way of dealing with the notoriously difficult ultraviolet problems of four-dimensional gravity. This approach also naturally leads to a new perspective on the holographic principle, tying it to the fundamental requirements of unitarity and diffeomorphism invariance, as well as to a new viewpoint on the cosmological constant problem. The numerical smallness of the cosmological constant is implied by a unique combination of holography and supersymmetry, opening a new window into the fundamental physics of the vacuum.

Comments: Fourth Prize, 2003 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Contest; 7 pages, LaTeX