Related papers: The BKL scenario, infrared renormalization, and qu…
An overview of some recent developments in inhomogeneous models is presented. As the volume and precision of cosmological data improves, it will become more and more essential to understand the non-linear behaviour of the Einstein field…
Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi models as specific spherically symmetric solutions of general relativity simplify in their reduced form some of the mathematical ingredients of black hole or cosmological applications. The conditions imposed in…
We consider a model of Quantum Gravity phenomenology, based on the idea that space-time may have some unknown granular structure that respects the Lorentz symmetry. The proposal involves non-trivial couplings of curvature to matter fields…
Homogeneous cosmological models with non-vanishing intrinsic curvature require a special treatment when they are quantized with loop quantum cosmological methods. Guidance from the full theory which is lost in this context can be replaced…
The Bianchi IX model has been used often to investigate the structure close to singularities of general relativity. Its classical chaos is expected to have, via the BKL scenario, implications even for the approach to general inhomogeneous…
Phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity try to infer model-independent laws by analyzing thought experiments and combining both quantum, relativistic, and gravitational ingredients. We first review these ingredients -three basic…
We explore the extension of quantum cosmology outside the homogeneous approximation, using the formalism of loop quantum gravity. We introduce a model where some of the inhomogeneous degrees of freedom are present, providing a tool for…
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…
In the last decade, progress on quantization of homogeneous cosmological spacetimes using techniques of loop quantum gravity has led to insights on various fundamental questions and has opened new avenues to explore Planck scale physics.…
Inhomogeneous quantum cosmology is modeled as a dynamical system of discrete patches, whose interacting many-body equations can be mapped to a non-linear minisuperspace equation by methods analogous to Bose-Einstein condensation.…
The Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz (BKL) conjecture predicts a chaotic alternation of Kasner epochs in the evolution of generic classical spacetimes towards a spacelike singularity. As a first step towards understanding the full quantum BKL…
Despite the fact that quantum gravity is non-renormalisable, a consistent and mathematically rigorous construction of a perturbation series is possible. This is based on the use of the Batalin-Vilkovisky-Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin formalism…
Spatially homogeneous models in quantum supergravity with a nonvanishing cosmological constant are studied. A class of exact nontrivial solutions of the supersymmetry and Lorentz constraints is obtained in terms of the Chern-Simons action…
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…
We introduce a new framework for loop quantum gravity: mimicking the spinfoam quantization procedure we propose to study the symmetric sectors of the theory imposing the reduction weakly on the full kinematical Hilbert space of the…
The basic problem of quantum cosmology is the definition of the quantum state of the universe, with appropriate boundary conditions on Riemannian three-geometries. This paper describes recent progress in the corresponding analysis of…
The present thesis deals with some properties of classical and quantum scalar fields in an inhomogeneous and/or time-dependent background, focusing on models where the latter can be described as a curved space-time with an event horizon.…
The framework of quantum symmetry reduction is applied to loop quantum gravity with respect to transitively acting symmetry groups. This allows to test loop quantum gravity in a large class of minisuperspaces and to investigate its features…
This is the first of two papers in which we construct formal power series solutions in external parameters to the vacuum Einstein equations, implementing one bounce for the Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz (BKL) proposal for spatially…
We summarize our work on spherically symmetric midi-superspaces in loop quantum gravity. Our approach is based on using inhomogeneous slicings that may penetrate the horizon in case there is one and on a redefinition of the constraints so…