Related papers: The landscape of polymer quantum cosmology
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, such as the quantum bounce and…
Singularities in general relativity such as the big bang and big crunch, and exotic singularities such as the big rip are the boundaries of the classical spacetimes. These events are marked by a divergence in the curvature invariants and…
The expansion of our universe, when followed backward in time, implies that it emerged from a phase of huge density, the big bang. These stages are so extreme that classical general relativity combined with matter theories is not able to…
It is shown that the cosmological singularity in isotropic minisuperspaces is naturally removed by quantum geometry. Already at the kinematical level, this is indicated by the fact that the inverse scale factor is represented by a bounded…
In classical general relativity, the generic approach to the initial singularity is very complicated as exemplified by the chaos of the Bianchi IX model which displays the generic local evolution close to a singularity. Quantum gravity…
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.…
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.…
Quantum effects are expected to modify the cosmological dynamics of the early universe while maintaining some (potentially discrete) notion of space-time structure. In one approach, loop quantum cosmology, current models are shown here to…
Loop quantum cosmology predicts that quantum gravity effects resolve the big-bang singularity and replace it by a cosmic bounce. Furthermore, loop quantum cosmology can also modify the form of primordial cosmological perturbations, for…
We shall present here the causal interpretation of canonical quantum gravity in terms of new variables. Then we shall apply it to the minisuperspace of cosmology. A vacuum solution of quantum cosmology is obtained and the Bohmian trajectory…
The problem of finding the quantum theory of the gravitational field, and thus understanding what is quantum spacetime, is still open. One of the most active of the current approaches is loop quantum gravity. Loop quantum gravity is a…
General relativity successfully describes space-times at scales that we can observe and probe today, but it cannot be complete as a consequence of singularity theorems. For a long time there have been indications that quantum gravity will…
After a brief introduction, basic ideas of the quantum Riemannian geometry underlying loop quantum gravity are summarized. To illustrate physical ramifications of quantum geometry, the framework is then applied to homogeneous isotropic…
We study the polymeric nature of quantum matter fields using the example of a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universe sourced by a minimally coupled massless scalar field. The model is treated in the symmetry reduced regime via…
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…
In quantum cosmology, one applies quantum physics to the whole universe. While no unique version and no completely well-defined theory is available yet, the framework gives rise to interesting conceptual, mathematical and physical…
In loop quantum gravity, modifications to the geometrical density cause a self-interacting scalar field to accelerate away from a minimum of its potential. In principle, this mechanism can generate the conditions that subsequently lead to…
Although there is general agreement that a removal of classical gravitational singularities is not only a crucial conceptual test of any approach to quantum gravity but also a prerequisite for any fundamental theory, the precise criteria…
It is well known that a closed universe with a minimally coupled massive scalar field always collapses to a singularity unless the initial conditions are extremely fine tuned. We show that the corrections to the equations of motion for the…
In this thesis, we study the implications of Quantum Gravity models for the dynamics of spacetime and the ensuing departures from classical General Relativity. The main focus is on cosmological applications, particularly the impact of…