Related papers: Signs and Cosmology
General relativity and its cosmological solution predicts the existence of tensor modes of perturbations evolving on top of our Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker expanding Universe. Being gauge invariant and not necessarily coupled to…
This work concerns a new reformulation of quantum geometrodynamics, which allows to overcome a fundamental ambiguity contained in the canonical approach to quantum gravity: the possibility of performing a (3+1)-slicing of space-time, when…
A new approach to the cosmological constant problem is proposed by modifying Einstein's theory of general relativity, using instead a scalar-tensor theory of gravitation. This theory of gravity crucially incorporates the concept of quantum…
A Planck scale inflationary era -- in a quantum gravity theory predicting discreteness of quantum geometry at the fundamental scale -- produces the scale invariant spectrum of inhomogeneities with very small tensor-to-scalar ratio of…
Using s-wave and large N approximation the one-loop effective action for 2d dilaton coupled scalars and spinors which are obtained by spherical reduction of 4d minimal matter is found. Quantum effective equations for reduced Einstein…
The macroscopic behavior of many physical systems can be approximately described by classical quantities. However, quantum theory demands the existence of omnipresent quantum fluctuations on top of this classical background -- which, albeit…
We suggest the modified gravity where some arbitrary function of Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term is added to Einstein action as gravitational dark energy. It is shown that such theory may pass solar system tests. It is demonstrated that modified GB…
We trace the origin of the cosmological constant problem to the assumption that Newton's constant $G$ sets the scale for cosmology. And then we show that once this assumption is relaxed, the very same cosmic acceleration which has served to…
The in-in effective action formalism is used to derive the semiclassical correction to Einstein's equations due to a massless scalar quantum field conformally coupled to small gravitational perturbations in spatially flat cosmological…
New Planck scale physics may solve the singularity problems of classical general relativity and may lead to interesting consequences for very early Universe cosmology. Two approaches to these questions are reviewed in this article. The…
It is shown that the antiscalar approach to dark energy, whereby the energy-momentum tensor of the scalar field has the sign opposite to that of the rest of the matter, follows from the considerations of thermodynamic stability, as well as…
Canonical quantization of an action containing curvature squared term requires introduction of an auxiliary variable. Boulware etal[1] prescribed a technique to choose such a variable, by taking derivative of an action with respect to the…
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…
The most recent observational constraints coming from Planck, when combined with other cosmological data, provide evidence for a phantom scenario. In this work we consider a quantum cosmic phantom model where both the matter particles and…
Planck scale physics represents a future challenge, located between particle physics and general relativity. The Planck scale marks a threshold beyond which the old description of spacetime breaks down and conceptually new phenomena must…
A non-singular bouncing cosmology is generically obtained in loop quantum cosmology due to non-perturbative quantum gravity effects. A similar picture can be achieved in standard general relativity in the presence of a scalar field with a…
The Planck scale is usually believed to be an unpassable wall. Putting a cutoff there and thinking of it as a quantized spacetime entity shows that. However, this is exactly the cause of many problems in quantum gravity. The cosmological…
This introductory review is addressed to beginning researchers. Some of the distinguishing features of loop quantum gravity are illustrated through loop quantum cosmology of FRW models. In particular, these examples illustrate: i) how…
The quantum gravity processes that have taken place in the very early Universe are probably responsible for the observed large-scale cosmological perturbations. The comparison of the theory with the detected microwave background…
The quantum contributions to the gravitational action are relatively easy to calculate in the higher derivative sector of the theory. However, the applications to the post-inflationary cosmology and astrophysics require the corrections to…