Why Is the Energy of Empty Space So Small?

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The cosmogical constant problem. Why is the energy of empty space so small? We didn't have, don't have on hand a bunch of plausible explanationst that would have predicted other particles or anything. The best explanation we had was this anthropic idea. And that raises the spectre that the anthropic idea is also responsible for the hags. So it sure looked scientific. Tom it may be wrong. It may make us ill, but,. but, but,but, it's, but, it's really there.

Modern particle physics is a victim of its own success. We have extremely good theories — so good that it’s hard to know exactly how to move beyond them, since they agree with all the experiments. Yet, there are strong indications from theoretical considerations and cosmological data that we need to do better. But the leading contenders, especially supersymmetry, haven’t yet shown up in our experiments, leading some to wonder whether anthropic selection is a better answer. Michael Dine gives us an expert’s survey of the current situation, with pointers to what might come next.

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Michael Dine received his Ph.D. in physics from Yale University. He is Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz. Among his awards are fellowships from the Sloan Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, American Physical Society, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Sakurai Prize for theoretical particle physics. His new book is This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist’s Journey to the Edge of Reality.

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