Related papers: Loop Quantum Cosmology: Effective theories and osc…
Loop quantum cosmology is an application of recent developments for a non-perturbative and background independent quantization of gravity to a cosmological setting. Characteristic properties of the quantization such as discreteness of…
Quantum gravity is expected to be necessary in order to understand situations where classical general relativity breaks down. In particular in cosmology one has to deal with initial singularities, i.e. the fact that the backward evolution…
Closed, singularity-free, inflationary cosmological models have recently been studied in the context of general relativity. Despite their appeal, these so called emergent models suffer from a number of limitations. These include the fact…
Loop quantum cosmology applies techniques derived for a background independent quantization of general relativity to cosmological situations and draws conclusions for the very early universe. Direct implications for the singularity problem…
Aspects of the full theory of loop quantum gravity can be studied in a simpler context by reducing to symmetric models like cosmological ones. This leads to several applications where loop effects play a significant role when one is…
Positively-curved, oscillatory universes are studied within the context of Loop Quantum Cosmology subject to a consistent semi-classical treatment. The semi-classical effects are reformulated in terms of an effective phantom fluid with a…
Quantum effects play an essential role in modern cosmology. Perhaps the most striking example comes from large-scale structures, generally assumed to originate from vacuum quantum fluctuations and stretched by an expansion phase. Inflation…
Loop Quantum Gravity is a background independent, nonperturbative approach to the quantization of General Relativity. Its application to models of interest in cosmology and astrophysics, known as Loop Quantum Cosmology, has led to new and…
This Chapter provides an up to date, pedagogical review of some of the most relevant advances in loop quantum cosmology. We review the quantization of homogeneous cosmological models, their singularity resolution and the formulation of…
Loop Quantum Gravity (L.Q.G.) is one of the two most promising tentative theory for a quantum description of gravity. When applied to the entire universe, the so-called Loop Quantum Cosmology (L.Q.C.) framework offers microscopical models…
Quantum cosmology has traditionally been studied at the level of symmetry-reduced minisuperspace models, analyzing the behavior of wave functions. However, in the absence of a complete full setting of quantum gravity and detailed knowledge…
The occurrence of singularities where spacetime curvature becomes infinite and geodesic evolution breaks down are inevitable events in classical general relativity (GR) unless one chooses an exotic matter violating weak energy condition.…
We study oscillatory universes within the context of Loop Quantum Cosmology. We make a comparative study of flat and positively curved universes sourced by scalar fields with either positive or negative potentials. We investigate how…
Loop quantum cosmology predicts that quantum gravity effects resolve the big-bang singularity and replace it by a cosmic bounce. Furthermore, loop quantum cosmology can also modify the form of primordial cosmological perturbations, for…
The standard model of cosmology assumes a homogeneous and isotropic universe that undergoes a period of exponential expansion very early on, named inflation. This stretches quantum fluctuations from the onset of inflation to cosmological…
Loop quantum cosmology is a tentative approach to model the universe down to the Planck era where quantum gravity settings are needed. The quantization of the universe as a dynamical space-time is inspired by Loop Quantum Gravity ideas. In…
Inhomogeneous cosmological perturbation equations are derived in loop quantum gravity, taking into account corrections in particular in gravitational parts. This provides a framework for calculating the evolution of modes in structure…
The expansion of our universe, when followed backward in time, implies that it emerged from a phase of huge density, the big bang. These stages are so extreme that classical general relativity combined with matter theories is not able to…
Oscillating solutions to the effective equations of Loop Quantum Cosmology have been suggested for the role of an `eternal seed', providing a possible starting point for the emergent universe scenario. We investigate the stability of a…
In recent years, Loop Quantum Gravity has emerged as a solid candidate for a nonperturbative quantum theory of General Relativity. It is a background independent theory based on a description of the gravitational field in terms of…