Comment on the cosmological constant and a gravitational alpha

Abstract

We call attention to a simple analogy between atomic physics and cosmology. Both have two characteristic length scales. In atomic physics the lengths are the Compton wavelength of the electron and the Bohr radius; the ratio of these two lengths is the fine structure constant, $\alpha=7.30\times10^{-3}$. In cosmology we take the lengths to be the Planck length and the de Sitter radius divided by $\sqrt 3$; the ratio of these two lengths is about $\alpha_g=1.91\times10^{-61}$, which we suggest should be called the gravitational fine structure constant. There is also a basic energy ratio in atomic physics, the ratio of the hydrogen atom binding energy to the electron rest energy, which is equal to ${\alpha^2}/2$. The analogous energy ratio in cosmology is the ratio of the dark energy density (described in terms of the cosmological constant) to the Planck energy density, which is equal to $(1/8\pi)\alpha_g^2$. The long-standing problem of the nature of the dark energy and its small density is obviously equivalent to understanding the extraordinarily small value of $\alpha_g$. We further emphasize that our observational knowledge of dark energy, which is consistent with the cosmological constant interpretation, is entirely on the cosmological scale, so we know essentially nothing about the nature of dark energy on a smaller and presumably more fundamental scale.