A conical tear drop as a vacuum-energy drain for the solution of the cosmological constant problem

We propose a partial solution to the cosmological constant problem by using the simple observation that a three-brane in a six-dimensional bulk is flat. A model is presented in which Standard Model vacuum energy is always absorbed by the transverse space. The latter is a tear-drop like space with a conical singularity, which preserves bulk supersymmetry and gives rise to conventional macroscopic 4D gravity with no cosmological constant. Its cone acts like a drain depleting vacuum energy from the three-brane to the tear drop increasing its volume. We stress that although gravity is treated classically, Standard Model is handled quantum-field theoretically and the model is robust against Standard Model corrections and particular details. The price paid is the presence of boundaries which are nevertheless physically harmless by appropriate boundary conditions. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.