Quantum-mechanical mechanism for reducing the cosmological constant

Abstract

We exhibit a mechanism that dynamically adjusts the cosmological constant toward 0+. The adjustment is quantum mechanical, discharging the cosmological constant in random discrete steps. It renders de Sitter space unstable and triggers its decay toward Minkowski. Since the instability dynamically stops at ?=0, the evolution favors the terminal Minkowski space without a need for anthropics. The mechanism works for any quantum field theory coupled to gravity.