Non-Vanishing Cosmological Constant $Λ$, Phase Transitions, And $Λ$-Dependence Of High Energy Processes

Abstract

It is pointed out that a collider experiment involves a local contribution to the energy-momentum tensor, a circumstance which not a common feature of the current state of the Universe at large characterized by the cosmological constant $Λ_0$. This contribution may be viewed as a change in the structure of space-time from its large scale form governed by $Λ_0$ to one governed by a $Λ$ peculiar to the scale of the experiment. Possible consequences of this effect are explored by exploiting the asymptotic symmetry of space-time for non-vanishing $Λ$ and its relation to vacuum energy.