A small cosmological constant from a large extra dimension

We propose a new approach to the Cosmological Constant Problem which makes essential use of an extra dimension. A model is presented in which the Standard Model vacuum energy warps the higher-dimensional spacetime while preserving 4D flatness. We argue that the strong curvature region of our solutions may effectively cut off the size of the extra dimension, thereby giving rise to macroscopic 4D gravity without a cosmological constant. In our model, the higher-dimensional gravity dynamics is treated classically with carefully chosen couplings. Our treatment of the Standard Model is however fully quantum field-theoretic, and the 4D flatness of our solutions is robust against Standard Model quantum loops and changes to Standard Model couplings. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.