English

How quantum is the big bang?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2008-11-26 v1 Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

When quantum gravity is used to discuss the big bang singularity, the most important, though rarely addressed, question is what role genuine quantum degrees of freedom play. Here, complete effective equations are derived for isotropic models with an interacting scalar to all orders in the expansions involved. The resulting coupling terms show that quantum fluctuations do not affect the bounce much. Quantum correlations, however, do have an important role and could even eliminate the bounce. How quantum gravity regularizes the big bang depends crucially on properties of the quantum state.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0805.1192,
  title  = {How quantum is the big bang?},
  author = {Martin Bojowald},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0805.1192},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

4 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:38:39.665Z