Pseudoredundant vacuum energy

We discuss models that can account for today's dark energy. The underlying cosmological constant may be Planck scale but starts as a redundant coupling which can be eliminated by a field redefinition. The observed vacuum energy arises when the redundancy is explicitly broken, say by a nonminimal coupling to curvature. We give a recipe for constructing models, including R+1/R-type models, that realize this mechanism and satisfy all solar system constraints on gravity. A similar model, based on Gauss-Bonnet gravity, provides a technically natural explanation for dark energy and exhibits an interesting seesaw behavior: a large underlying cosmological constant gives rise to both low- and high-curvature solutions. Such models could be statistically favored in the string landscape.

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