Related papers: No smooth spacetime: Exploring primordial perturba…
In minisuperspace quantum cosmology, the Lorentzian path integral formulations of the no-boundary and tunneling proposals have recently been analyzed. But it has been pointed out that the wave function of linearized perturbations around a…
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…
The theory of cosmological perturbations has become a cornerstone of modern quantitative cosmology since it is the framework which provides the link between the models of the very early Universe such as the inflationary Universe scenario…
Our Universe is nearly spatially flat, but this does not mean that it is exactly spatially flat. In this paper we derive general quadratic actions for cosmological perturbations in non-flat models from the Horndeski theory. This allows us…
Cosmological perturbations are generally described by quantum fields on (curved but) classical space-times. While this strategy has a large domain of validity, it can not be justified in the quantum gravity era where curvature and matter…
Cosmology appears as the most promising way to test and constrain quantum gravity theories. Loop quantum gravity is among the most advanced attempts to perform a non-perturbative quantization of general relativity. Its cosmological…
We study fluctuations and correlations between spacial regions, generated by the primordial quantum gravitational phase of the universe. We do so by a numerical evaluation of Lorentzian amplitudes in Loop Quantum Gravity, in a…
The perturbations in the early universe are generated as a result of the interplay between quantum field theory and gravitation. Since these primordial perturbations lead to the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and eventually…
We derive the dynamics of (isotropic) scalar perturbations from the mean-field hydrodynamics of full Lorentzian quantum gravity, as described by a two-sector (timelike and spacelike) Barrett-Crane group field theory (GFT) model. The rich…
For most initial conditions, cosmologically relevant physical modes were trans-planckian at the bounce time, often by many magnitude orders. We improve the usual loop quantum cosmology calculation of the primordial power spectra -- in the…
Quantum cosmology based on Lorentzian path integrals is a promising avenue. However, many previous works allow non-Lorentzian configurations by integrating the squared scale factor over the whole real line. Here we show that restricting the…
Loop quantum cosmology (LQC) provides a resolution of the classical big bang singularity in the deep Planck era. The evolution, prior to the usual slow-roll inflation, naturally generates excited states at the onset of the slow-roll…
This chapter provides a review of the frameworks developed for cosmological perturbation theory in loop quantum cosmology, and applications to various models of the early universe including inflation, ekpyrosis and the matter bounce, with…
We present a theory of tunnelling geometries originating from the no-boundary quantum state of Hartle and Hawking. We reformulate the no-boundary wavefunction in the representation of true physical variables and calculate it in the one-loop…
Inflationary cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin generically interact with all degrees of freedom present in the early Universe. Therefore, they must be viewed as an open quantum system in interaction with an…
Since it is commonly believed that the observed large-scale structure of the Universe is an imprint of quantum fluctuations existing at the very early stage of its evolution, it is reasonable to pose the question: Do the effects of quantum…
We compute, from first principles, the quantum fluctuations about instanton saddle points of the Euclidean path integral for Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field. The Euclidean two-point correlator is analytically continued into the…
The theory of cosmological perturbations is extended to spacetimes displaying isotropic expansion but anisotropic curvature. The perturbed Einstein equation and Boltzmann equations for massless and massive particles are derived in a general…
In these lecture notes I review the theory of the non--linear evolution of cosmological perturbations in a self--gravitating collisionless medium, with vanishing vorticity. The problem is first analyzed in the context of the Newtonian…
In this paper, we provide a systematic investigation of high-order primordial perturbations with nonlinear dispersion relations due to quantum gravitational effects in the framework of {\em uniform asymptotic approximations}. Because of…