Cosmology and short-distance gravity

Abstract

If the observed dark-energy density $\rho_\Lambda$ is interpreted as the net contribution of the energy density of the vacuum, $\rho_\Lambda \equiv \rho_V \sim M_V^4$, and the corresponding vacuum length scale $\lambda_V = M_V^{-1}$ as the cutoff scale controlling the low-energy, effective field-theory limit of gravity, it follows that the conventional cosmological scenario based on the effective gravitational equations may be valid only up to the Tev energy scale. Such a possibility would be strongly disfavored by the existence of a relic background of primordial gravitational radiation of intensity compatible with present (or near future) experimental sensitivities.