The Universe in a Helium Droplet

The universe in a Helium Droplet is a book written by theoretical physicist Grigory E. Volovik. In this book Dr. Volovik presents an alternative solution to the problem of the cosmological constant. His proposal makes the respectable assumption that the vacuum can be modelled as a cold quantum liquid in thermodynamic equilibrium. Explore this thought-provoking  and interesting proposal...

By Gregory E. Volovik

Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology

and 

Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Moscow

FOREWORD

It is often said that the problem of the very small cosmological constant is the greatest mystery in cosmology and in particle physics, and that no one has any good ideas on how to solve it. The contents of this book make a lie of that statement. The material in this monograph builds upon a candidate solution to the problem, often dubbed ‘emergence’. It is a solution so simple and direct that it can be stated here in this foreword. Visualize the vacuum of particle physics as if it were a cold quantum liquid in equilibrium. Then its pressure must vanish, unless it is a droplet – in which case there will be surface corrections scaling as an inverse power of the droplet size. But vacuum dark pressure scales with the vacuum dark energy, and thus is measured by the cosmological constant, which indeed scales as the inverse square of the ‘size’ of the universe. The problem is ‘solved’.

But there is some bad news with the good. Photons, gravitons, and gluons must be viewed as collective excitations of the purported liquid, with dispersion laws which at high energies are not expected to be relativistic. The equivalence principle and gauge invariance are probably inexact. Many other such ramifications exist, as described in this book. And experimental constraints on such deviant behavior are extremely strong. Nevertheless, it is in my opinion not out of the question that the difficulties can eventually be overcome. If they are, it will mean that many sacrosanct beliefs held by almost all contemporary theoretical particle physicists and cosmologists will at the least be severely challenged. This book summarizes the pioneering research of its author, Grisha Volovik, and provides a splendid guide into this mostly unexplored wilderness of emergent particle physics and cosmology. So far it is not respectable territory, so there is danger to the young researcher venturing within –working on it may be detrimental to a successful career track. But together with the danger will be high adventure and, if the ideas turn out to be correct, great rewards. I salute here those who take the chance and embark upon the adventure. At the very least they will be rewarded by acquiring a deep understanding of much of the lore of condensed matter physics. And, with some luck, they will also be rewarded by uncovering a radically different interpretation of the profound problems involving the structure of the very large and of the very small.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center 

James D. Bjorken

August 2002

Download the complete book here