Related papers: Spacetime instability due to quantum gravity
The cosmological constant problem arises because the magnitude of vacuum energy density predicted by quantum mechanics is about 120 orders of magnitude larger than the value implied by cosmological observations of accelerating cosmic…
The $q$-theory approach to the cosmological constant problem is reconsidered. The new observation is that the effective classical $q$-theory gets modified due to the backreaction of quantum-mechanical particle production by spacetime…
A solvable 2-dimensional conformally invariant midi-superspace model for black holes is obtained by imposing spherical symmetry in 4-dimensional conformally invariant Einstein gravity. The Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the theory is solved…
Loop quantum cosmology provides an efficient framework to study the evolution of the Universe beyond the classical Big Bang paradigm. Because of holonomy corrections, the singularity is replaced by a "bounce". The dynamics of the background…
It is suggested that the Minkowski vacuum of quantum field theories of a large number of fields N would be gravitationally unstable due to strong vacuum energy fluctuations unless an N dependent sub-Planckian ultraviolet momentum cutoff is…
We study a massive inflaton minimally coupled to the FRW Universe using the semiclassical gravity derived from canonical quantum gravity. It is found that the semiclassical quantum gravity leads to the power-law expansion $t^{2/3}$ in an…
On the path towards quantum gravity, we find friction between temporal relations in quantum mechanics (QM) (where they are fixed and field-independent), and in general relativity (where they are field-dependent and dynamic). This paper aims…
Recently a scale invariant theory of gravity was constructed by imposing a conformal symmetry on general relativity. The imposition of this symmetry changed the configuration space from superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics…
Topology change in quantum gravity is considered. An exact wave function of the Universe is calculated for topological Chern-Simons 2+1 dimensional gravity. This wave function occurs as the effect of a quantum anomaly which leads to the…
We investigate the problem of metric fluctuations in the presence of the vacuum fluctuations of matter fields and critically assess the usual assertion that vacuum energy implies a Planckian cosmological constant. A new stochastic classical…
Treating general relativity as an effective field theory, we compute the leading-order quantum corrections to the orbits and gravitational-wave emission of astrophysical compact binaries. These corrections are independent of the (unknown)…
A finite quantum gravity theory is used to resolve the cosmological constant problem. A fundamental quantum gravity scale, \Lambda_G \leq 10^{-3} eV, is introduced above which the quantum corrections to the vacuum energy density coupled to…
Hubble's correlation of red-shift with distance reveals that the universe is expanding, and that spacetime curvature has increased over time. And since time and space have equal status as dimensions, an object moving through time…
Quantum gravity may shed light on the prehistory of the universe. Quantum corrections to gravity affect the dynamics of the expansion of the universe. Their influence is studied on the example of the exactly solvable quantum model. The…
We show that the current accelerated expansion of the Universe can be explained without resorting to dark energy. Models of generalized modified gravity, with inverse powers of the curvature can have late time accelerating attractors…
The existence of a small, non-zero cosmological constant is one of the major puzzles in fundamental physics. Naively, quantum field theory arguments would imply a cosmological constant which is up to 10$^{120}$ times larger than the…
There is a common expectation that the big-bang singularity must be resolved in quantum gravity but it is not clear how this can be achieved. A major obstacle here is the difficulty of interpreting wave-functions in quantum gravity. The…
In this short paper we investigate quantum gravitational effects on Einstein's equations using effective field theory techniques. We consider the leading order quantum gravitational correction to the wave equation. Besides the usual…
As shown by Parker and Raval, quantum field theory in curved spacetime gives a possible mechanism for explaining the observed recent acceleration of the universe. This mechanism, which differs in its dynamics from quintessence models,…
The evolution of inhomogeneities in a spherical collapse model is studied by expanding the Einstein equation in powers of inverse radial parameter. In the linear regime, the density contrast is obtained for flat, closed and open universes.…