Related papers: Big Bang and Topology
The research effort reported in this paper is directed, in a broad sense, towards understanding the small-scale structure of spacetime. The fundamental question that guides our discussion is ``what is the physical content of spacetime…
In this paper, in the framework of massive bigravity, we study all possible cosmic evolutions by using a method in which the modified Friedmann equation is written in a form where the scale factor evolves like the motion of a particle under…
Analytical and numerical methods are developed to analyze the quantum nature of the big bang in the setting of loop quantum cosmology. They enable one to explore the effects of quantum geometry both on the gravitational and matter sectors…
The Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity naturally extends general relativity to account for the intrinsic spin of matter. Spacetime torsion, generated by spin of Dirac fields, induces gravitational repulsion in fermionic matter…
We study a relation between topological quantum field theory and the Kodama (Chern-Simons) state. It is shown that the Kodama (Chern-Simons) state describes a topological state with unbroken diffeomorphism invariance in Yang-Mills theory…
A thought experiment is proposed to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. The central paradigm is that space-time {\it topology} is ultimately responsible for the Heisenberg uncertaintly principle. It is found that Plankian…
Certain topological invariants of the moduli space of gravitational instantons are defined and studied. Several amplitudes of two and four dimensional topological gravity are computed. A notion of puncture in four dimensions, that is…
We suggest that the "Big Bang" may be a result of the first-order phase transition driven by changing scalar curvature of the 4D space-time in expanding cold Universe, filled with nonlinear scalar field $\phi $ and neutral matter with…
We introduce a three-dimensional quantum field theory with an infinite-dimensional symmetry, realized explicitly through a centrally extended affine graded Lie algebra. This symmetry is a direct three-dimensional generalization of the…
We use the topological quantum field theory description of states in Chern-Simons theory to discuss the relation between spacetime connectivity and entanglement, exploring the paradigm entanglement=topology. We define a special class of…
Old and new puzzles of cosmology are reexamined from the point of view of quantum theory of the universe developed here. It is shown that in proposed approach the difficulties of the standard cosmology do not arise. The theory predicts the…
An alternative formulation of the no-boundary initial state of the universe in the Euclidean quantum theory of gravity is proposed. Unlike the no-boundary Hartle-Hawking wave function, in which time appears together with macroscopic…
An interpretation is suggested that a spontaneous compactification of space-time can be regarded as a topological defect in a higher-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) theory. We start with $D$-dimensional EYM theory in our present…
Structure in the Universe is widely believed to have originated from quantum fluctuations during an early epoch of accelerated expansion. Yet, the patterns we observe today do not distinguish between quantum or classical primordial…
Determining the initial state of the universe is a challenging problem in quantum cosmology and we argue that the issue is intractable if the basic postulates of quantum mechanics are not modified in a nontrivial way. Namely a "standard"…
We consider cosmological models in which a homogeneous isotropic universe is embedded as a 3+1 dimensional surface into a 4+1 dimensional manifold. The size of the extra dimension depends on time. It is small compared to the size of the…
Old and new puzzles of cosmology are reexamined from the point of view of quantum theory of the universe developed here. It is shown that in proposed approach the difficulties of the standard cosmology do not arise. The theory predicts the…
We suggest a new explanation for the observed large scale flatness, homogeneity and isotropy of the universe. The basic ingredients are elementary and well-known, namely Einstein's theory of gravity and Hawking's method of computing…
Quantum gravity is studied nonperturbatively in the case in which space has a boundary with finite area. A natural set of boundary conditions is studied in the Euclidean signature theory, in which the pullback of the curvature to the…
Based upon the holographic principle, Jacobson demonstrated that the spacetime can be viewed as a gas of atoms with a related entropy given by the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Following this argument, Friedmann equations can be derived by…