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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

2.THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT REVISITED

3.FRW COSMOLOGICAL MODELS WITH 0

3.1.Closed universe models ( = 1)

3.2.Spatially open and flat cosmological models

4.OBSERVATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF A COSMOLOGICAL LAMBDA-TERM

4.1.H₀, q₀ and the Age of the Universe

4.2.The luminosity distance and gravitational lensing

4.3.Type 1a Supernovae and the value of Lambda

4.4.Constraints on Lambda from the cosmic microwave background

4.5.The Angular size - redshift relation

4.6.Clusters of galaxies and the Large Scale Structure of the Universe

5.THEORETICAL ISSUES: VACUUM FLUCTUATIONS AND THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

6.THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT AND SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING

7.MECHANISMS FOR GENERATING A SMALL CURRENT VALUE OF LAMBDA

7.1.A Decaying Cosmological Constant?

7.2.Vacuum polarization and the value of Lambda

7.3.Late-time Inflation and Lambda.

7.4.Generating a small cosmological constant from Inflationary particle production

8.PHENOMENOLOGICAL MODELS OF A DYNAMICAL LAMBDA-TERM

8.1.Overview

8.2.When may a Lambda-term be described by a minimally coupled scalar field?

8.3.Relation between kinematic and dynamical descriptions of Lambda

8.4.Reconstructing the effective potential V()

9.UNIVERSALITY OF LAMBDA AND ANTHROPIC ARGUMENTS FOR ITS SMALL VALUE

10.SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

REFERENCES