📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

String theories naturally predict a negative, while observations on the exponential expansion of the present Universe requires a positive value for the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. Solution to resolve this discrepancy is known in the framework of string theory and given for Asymptotically Safe (AS) quantum gravity by using Renormalization Group (RG). However, the former might describes unstable worlds and the latter lacks the inclusion of temperature which is otherwise crucial in the early Universe. Here we present a proposal for resolving this conflict by using a modified thermal RG method where the temperature parameter $T$ is given by the inverse radius of the compactified time-like dimension, similarly to spacetime foliation. In our scenario not the dimensionful temperature $T$, but the dimensionless temperature $\tau = T/k$ is kept constant when the RG scale $k$ is sent to zero and string theory is assumed to take place at very high while AS quantum gravity at intermediate and low temperatures. We show that the modified thermal RG study of AS quantum gravity models at very high temperatures results in a negative cosmological constant while turns it into a positive parameter for low temperatures.