Gravitational zero point energy and the induced cosmological constant

Abstract

We discuss how to extract information about the cosmological constant from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, considered as an eigenvalue of a Sturm- Liouville problem in a generic spherically symmetric background. The equation is approximated to one loop with the help of a variational approach with Gaussian trial wave functionals. A canonical decomposition of modes is used to separate transverse-traceless tensors (graviton) from ghosts and scalar. We show that no ghosts appear in the final evaluation of the cosmological constant. A zeta function regularization and a ultra violet cutoff are used to handle with divergences. A renormalization procedure is introduced to remove the infinities. We compare the result with the one obtained in the context of noncommutative geometries.