Related papers: Phenomenological implications of modified loop cos…
This thesis is centered on three main subjects within the theory of inflation and cosmological perturbations: loop corrections to the power spectrum of curvature fluctuations generated during inflation; evolution of cosmological…
The computation of the spectrum of primordial perturbations, generated by a scalar field during the super-inflationary phase of Loop Quantum Cosmology, is revisited. The calculation is performed for two different cases. The first considers…
I present a streamlined review of how the separate universe approach to cosmological perturbation theory can be used to study the dynamics of long-wavelength scalar perturbations in loop quantum cosmology, and then use it to calculate how…
Considering as usual that the underlying geometry of our universe is well described by the spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker line element, we review how the background of holonomy corrected Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC)…
We study slow-roll inflation driven by a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity within the effective framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC), including inverse-volume corrections. We consider two physically motivated classes of…
We study the dynamics of the scalar modes of linear perturbations around a flat, homogeneous and isotropic background in loop quantum cosmology. The equations of motion include quantum geometry effects and hold at all curvature scales so…
Loop quantum cosmology homogeneous models with a massless scalar field show that the big-bang singularity can be replaced by a big quantum bounce. To gain further insight on the nature of this bounce, we study the semi-discrete loop quantum…
Since there are quantization ambiguities in constructing the Hamiltonian constraint operator in isotropic loop quantum cosmology, it is crucial to check whether the key features of loop quantum cosmology are robust against the ambiguities.…
This thesis investigates late-time cosmic acceleration using modified gravity theories with a focus on $f(Q)$ gravity, as an alternative to the $\Lambda$CDM model. The standard cosmological model attributes the acceleration to a…
We consider the presence and evolution of primordial density perturbations in a cosmological model based on a simple ansatz which captures -- by providing a set of effective gravitational field equations -- the strength of the enhanced…
We apply the full theory of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) to cosmology and present a top-down derivation of gauge-invariant cosmological perturbation theory from quantum gravity. The derivation employs the reduced phase space formulation of…
In a class of recently proposed models, the early universe is strongly coupled and described holographically by a three-dimensional, weakly coupled, super-renormalizable quantum field theory. This scenario leads to a power spectrum of…
The article addresses a possibility of obtaining cosmologically relevant effects from the quantum nature of the Hubble horizon. Following the observation made by E.~Bianchi and C.~Rovelli in Phys.\ Rev.\ D {\bf 84} (2011) 027502 we explore…
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…
Observations by Planck indicate that CMB anisotropies are consistent with predictions of nearly Gaussian primordial perturbations as the one generated in slow-roll inflation. On the other hand, loop quantum cosmology (LQC) generates a…
The occurrence of singularities where spacetime curvature becomes infinite and geodesic evolution breaks down are inevitable events in classical general relativity (GR) unless one chooses an exotic matter violating weak energy condition.…
We study the generation of primordial perturbations in a (single-field) slow-roll inflationary universe. In momentum space, these (Gaussian) perturbations are characterized by a zero mean and a non-zero variance $\Delta^2(k, t)$. However,…
The "improved dynamics" of loop quantum cosmology is extended to include anisotropies of the Bianchi I model. As in the isotropic case, a massless scalar field serves as a relational time parameter. However, the extension is non-trivial…
We study the tensor modes of linear metric perturbations within an effective framework of loop quantum cosmology. After a review of inverse-volume and holonomy corrections in the background equations of motion, we solve the linearized…
The era of precision cosmology has allowed us to accurately determine many important cosmological parameters, in particular via the CMB. Confronting Loop Quantum Cosmology with these observations provides us with a powerful test of the…