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Probability distribution for the quantum universe

High Energy Physics - Theory 2022-01-05 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We determine the inner product on the Hilbert space of wavefunctions of the universe by imposing the Hermiticity of the quantum Hamiltonian in the context of the minisuperspace model. The corresponding quantum probability density reproduces successfully the classical probability distribution in the 0\hbar \to 0 limit, for closed universes filled with a perfect fluid of index ww. When 1/3<w1-1/3<w\le 1, the wavefunction is normalizable and the quantum probability density becomes vanishingly small at the big bang/big crunch singularities, at least at the semi-classical level. Quantum expectation values of physical geometrical quantities, which diverge classically at the singularities, are shown to be finite.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2110.03050,
  title  = {Probability distribution for the quantum universe},
  author = {Alex Kehagias and Hervé Partouche and Nicolaos Toumbas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.03050},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

1+17 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T06:41:05.673Z