Related papers: Origin of Structure in the Universe: Quantum Cosmo…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universe is reconsidered and formally simplified by introducing new covariant and gauge-invariant variables with physical interpretations on…
Quantum cosmology is usually studied quantizing symmetry-reduced variables. Is it possible, instead, to define quantum cosmology starting from the full quantum gravity theory? In Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), it is possible to cut the degrees…
Positive vacuum energy together with extra dimensions of space imply that our four-dimensional Universe is unstable, generically to decompactification of the extra dimensions. Either quantum tunneling or thermal fluctuations carry one past…
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 study of the properties of cosmic structures in the universe is one of the most fascinating subject of the modern cosmology research. Far from being predicted, the large scale structure of the matter distribution is a very recent…
In physical theories, boundary or initial conditions play the role of selecting special situations which can be described by a theory with its general laws. Cosmology has long been suspected to be different in that its fundamental theory…
There is a formal analogy between the evolution of the universe, when this is seen as a trajectory in the minisuperspace, and the worldline followed by a test particle in a curved spacetime. The analogy can be extended to the quantum realm,…
Significative developments on the primordial black hole quantization seem to indicate that the structure formation in the universe behaves under a unified scheme. This leads to the existence of scaling relations, whose validity could offer…
In order to account for the observable Universe, any comprehensive theory or model of cosmology must draw from many disciplines of physics, including gauge theories of strong and weak interactions, the hydrodynamics and microphysics 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…
Loop quantum cosmology is a symmetry reduced quantization of cosmological spacetimes based on loop quantum gravity. While it has been successful in resolution of various cosmological singularities and connecting Planck scale physics to…
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…
The current understanding of structure formation in the early universe is mainly built on a magnification of quantum fluctuations in an initial vacuum state during an early phase of accelerated universe expansion. One usually describes this…
The paper uses geometrical arguments to derive equations with relevance for cosmology; 5-dimensional spacetime is assumed because it has been shown in other works to provide a setting for significant unification of different areas of…
A new approach is suggested which allows to describe phenomenologically arbitrary topologies of the Universe. It consists in a generalizaton of third quantization. This quantization is carried out for the case of asymptotic closeness to a…
This paper gives an elementary introduction to some of the conceptual problems of quantum cosmology. Contents: 1. Why quantum cosmology? 2. Time in quantum gravity 3.Decoherence and the recovery of the Schrodinger equation 4. The direction…
Assuming that Quantum Mechanics is universal and that it can be applied over all scales, then the Universe is allowed to be in a quantum superposition of states, where each of them can correspond to a different space-time geometry. How can…
Contrary to common belief, there are perspectives for generalizing the notion of positive and negative frequency in minisuperspace quantum cosmology, even when the wave equation does not admit symmetries. We outline a strategy in doing so…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
In any attempt to build a quantum theory of gravity, a central issue is to unravel the structure of space-time at the smallest scale. Of particular relevance is the possible definition of coordinate functions within the theory and the study…