The graviton propagator in a de Sitter background is found to be divergent. We show that as a consequence of this divergence, de Sitter space is not a solution of the equations of motion of the complete theory. If we start from de Sitter space as a classical ground state, quantum corrections change it into flat Minkowski space.

• Received 28 October 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.1319