Related papers: Loop quantum cosmology: relation between theory an…
In this article we review the foundations and the present status of loop quantum gravity. It is short and relatively non-technical, the emphasis is on the ideas, and the flavor of the techniques. In particular, we describe the kinematical…
Cosmological models involving a bounce from a contracting to an expanding universe can address the standard cosmological puzzles and generate "primordial" density perturbations without the need for inflation. Some such models, in particular…
In this review I consider several different issues related to inflation. I will begin with the wave function of the Universe. This issue is pretty old, but recently there were some new insights based on the theory of the self-reproducing…
A simple model is constructed which allows to compute modified dispersion relations with effects from loop quantum gravity. Different quantization choices can be realized and their effects on the order of corrections studied explicitly. A…
Focus of these lectures is the challenge of explaining the origin of structure in the Universe. The interplay between quantum field theory and classical general relativity has given rise to several interesting cosmological models which…
Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity offers opportunities to solve some principal problems of general relativity theory and modern cosmology. In the frame of this theory the gravitational interaction can have the repulsion character in the…
The first aim of this lecture is to highlight two areas of recent progress in inflationary cosmology, namely reheating and the quantum theory of cosmological perturbations. The second aim is to discuss important conceptual problems for the…
In light of the recent observational data coming from the sky we have two significant directions in the field of theoretical cosmology recently. First, we are now able to make use of present observations, such as the Planck and BICEP2 data,…
We investigate quantum decoherence in a class of models which interpolates between expanding (inflation) and contracting (ekpyrosis) scenarios. For the cases which result in a scale-invariant power spectrum, we find that ekpyrotic universes…
The relation between an isotropic and an anisotropic model in loop quantum cosmology is discussed in detail, comparing the strict symmetry reduction with a perturbative implementation of symmetry. While the latter cannot be done in a…
In order to extract maximal information about cosmology from the large-scale structure of the Universe, one needs to use every bit of signal that can be observed. Beyond the spatial distributions of astronomical objects, the spatial…
The prediction of a phase of inflation whose number of e-folds is constrained is an important feature of loop quantum cosmology. This work aims at giving some elementary clarifications on the role of the different hypotheses leading to this…
In order to account for the observable Universe, any comprehensive theory or model of cosmology must draw from many disciplines of physics, including gauge theories of strong and weak interactions, the hydrodynamics and microphysics of…
A general nonperturvative loop quantization procedure for metric modified gravity is reviewed. As an example, this procedure is applied to scalar-tensor theories of gravity. The quantum kinematical framework of these theories is rigorously…
A short pedagogical overview of cosmological perturbation theory, following the lectures given during the brazilian school of cosmology held in August 2012. Topics treated are: I. The background II. SVT decomposition and the gauge issue.…
We discuss quantum gravitational loop effects to observable quantities such as curvature power spectrum and primordial non-Gaussianity of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. We first review the previously shown case where one gets…
On the one hand, inflation is an extremely convincing scenario: it solves most cosmological paradoxes and generates fluctuations that became the seeds for the growth of structures. It, however, suffers from a "naturalness" problem:…
These lecture notes cover mainly three connected topics. In the first part we give a detailed treatment of cosmological perturbation theory. The second part is devoted to cosmological inflation and the generation of primordial fluctuations.…
We use the separate universe framework to study cosmological perturbations within the group field theory formalism for quantum gravity, based on multi-condensate quantum states. Working with a group field theory action for gravity minimally…
A large number of models have been analyzed in loop quantum cosmology, using mainly minisuperspace constructions and perturbations. At the same time, general physics principles from effective field theory and covariance have often been…