Related papers: Tunneling wave function of the universe II: the ba…
We allow a scalar field on a flat FLRW background metric to tunnel between two degenerate vacua. The resulting true vacuum state then violates the Null Energy Condition, and the corresponding homogeneous fluid induces a bounce, after which…
We study the backreaction of gravitationally amplified quantum fluctuations of scalar fields on a classical de Sitter geometry. We formulate the problem in the framework of the Wilsonian renormalisation group, which allows us to treat the…
It was proposed recently that the Schr\"odinger wave function can be reconstructed exactly from a discrete superposition of classical action branches weighted by associated classical densities, without semiclassical approximations. We…
When the scale factor of expansion of the universe is written as $ a(t)\equiv Ae^{\alpha(t)}$, with $A$ as some real constant and $\alpha(t)$ a real function, the gravitational action $I_G$ appears in the same form as the matter action…
We review some recent results concerning the Hartle--Hawking wavefunction of the universe. We focus on pure Einstein theory of gravity in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. We carefully implement the gauge-fixing procedure…
Building upon our recently established correspondence between quantum cosmology and the hydrogen atom [1], we investigate the specific sector of a negative cosmological constant ($\Lambda < 0$) in a flat FLRW universe with dust. While the…
We investigate scalar particle creation in a set of bouncing models where the bounce occurs due to quantum cosmological effects described by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. The scalar field can be either conformally or minimally coupled to…
We consider quantum general relativity in three dimensions with a positive cosmological constant. The Hartle-Hawking wave function is computed as a function of metric data at asymptotic future infinity. The analytic continuation from…
We point out that the standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem itself is problematic since it is trying to apply the very large scale homogeneous cosmological model to very small (Planck) scale phenomenon. At small scales,…
We investigate the properties of a quantum Robertson - Walker universe described by the Wheeler -- DeWitt equation. The universe is filled with a quantum Yang -- Mills uniform field. This is then a quantum mini copy of the standard model of…
The quantum decay of a metastable vacuum is exponentially suppressed by a tunneling action that can be calculated in the semi-classical approximation as the Euclidean action of a bounce that interpolates between the false and true phases.…
The Lorentzian path integral for the wave function of the Universe is only conditionally convergent and thus requires a well-defined prescription. The Picard-Lefschetz approach ensures convergence through contour deformation, but it has…
We investigate the emergence of a quantum Big-Bounce in the context of an isotropic Universe, filled by a self-interacting scalar field, which plays the role of a physical clock. The bouncing cosmology is the result of a scattering process,…
Within the so-called scaled quantum theory, the standard bouncing ball problem is analyzed under the presence of a gravitational field and harmonic potential. In this framework, the quantum-classical transition of the density matrix is…
We study the semiclassical fluctuation problem around bounce solutions for a self-interacting scalar field in curved space. As in flat space, the fluctuation problem separates into partial waves labeled by an integer l, and we determine the…
We investigate the back reaction of cosmological perturbations on an inflationary universe using the renormalization-group method. The second-order zero mode solution which appears by the nonlinearity of the Einstein equation is regarded as…
Selection of physically meaningful solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the wavefunction in quantum cosmology, can be attained by a reduction of the theory to the sector of true physical degrees of freedom and their canonical…
We demonstrate in the context of the minisuperspace model consisting of a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe coupled to a scalar field that Vilenkin's tunneling wavefunction can only be consistently defined for particular choices of…
When the semi-positive cosmological constant is dynamical, the naive Euclidean Einstein action is unbounded from below and the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction of the universe is not normalizable. With the inclusion of back-reaction (a crucial…
Consistency of the unconventional view of de Sitter space as a quantum theory of gravity with a finite number of degrees of freedom requires that Coleman-De Luccia tunneling rates to vacua with negative cosmological constant should be…