Closing the Universe by relaxing the cosmological constant

Abstract

We propose a string-inspired model which correlates several aspects of particle physics and cosmology. Inspired by the flat directions and the absence of adjoint Higgs representations found in typical string models, we consider a no-scale $SU(5)\times U(1)$ supergravity model. This model entails well determined low-energy phenomenology, such as the value of the neutralino dark matter relic abundance and a negative contribution to the vacuum energy. A positive contribution to the vacuum energy is also typically present in string theory as a consequence of the running of the fundamental constants towards their fixed point values. If these two contributions cancel appropriately, one may end up with a vacuum energy which brings many cosmological observations into better agreement with theoretical expectations. The present abundance of neutralinos would then be fixed. We delineate the regions of parameter space allowed in this scenario, and study the ensuing predictions for the sparticle and Higgs-boson masses in this model.