A Cosmological Constant from Gauge Field Instantons?

Abstract

Although all interactions in the Standard Model generate nonzero shifts of the vacuum energy and pressure, gravity does not interact with them. Assuming (i) that the reason why it is so breaks down at some scale $M_g$ and that (ii) the instanton-induced shifts at such scale generate the observed cosmological constant, we found that it then should happen at a (surprisingly small) scale $M_g\sim 10^3 TeV$.