A natural cosmological constant from chameleons

Abstract

We present a simple model where the effective cosmological constant appears from chameleon scalar fields. For a Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi (KKLT)-inspired form of the potential and a particular chameleon coupling to the local density, patches of approximately constant scalar field potential cluster around regions of matter with density above a certain value, generating the effect of a cosmological constant on large scales. This construction addresses both the cosmological constant problem (why Λ is so small, yet nonzero) and the coincidence problem (why Λ is comparable to the matter density now).