Decoherence in quantum cosmology and the cosmological constant

Abstract

We discuss a spacetime having the topology of $S^{3}\times\mathbb{R}$ but with a different smoothness structure. The initial state of the cosmos in our model is identified with a wildly embedded 3-sphere (or a fractal space). In previous work we showed that a wild embedding is obtained by a quantization of a usual (or tame) embedding. Then a wild embedding can be identified with a (geometrical) quantum state. During a decoherence process this wild 3-sphere is changed to a homology 3-sphere. We are able to calculate the decoherence time for this process. After the formation of the homology 3-sphere, we obtain a spacetime with an accelerated expansion enforced by a cosmological constant. The calculation of this cosmological constant gives a qualitative agreement with the current measured value.