Vacuum in quantum liquids and in general relativity

Abstract

Quantum liquids, in which an effective Lorentzian metric and thus some kind of gravity gradually arise in the low-energy corner, are the objects where the problems related to the quantum vacuum can be investigated in detail. In particular, they provide the possible solution of the cosmological constant problem: why the vacuum energy is by 120 orders of magnitude smaller than the estimation from the relativistic quantum field theory. The almost complete cancellation of the cosmological constant does not require any fine tuning and comes from the fundamental ``trans-Planckian'' physics of quantum liquids. The remaining vacuum energy is generated by the perturbations of quantum vacuum caused by matter (quasiparticles), curvature, and other possible sources, such as smooth component -- the quintessence. This provides the possible solution of another cosmological constant problem: why the present cosmological constant is on the order of the present matter density of the Universe. We discuss here some properties of the quantum vacuum in quantum liquids: the vacuum energy under different conditions; excitations above the vacuum state and the effective acoustic metric for them provided by the motion of the vacuum; Casimir effect, etc.