Related papers: Does loop quantum gravity imply Lambda=0?
The quantum-reduced loop-gravity technique has been introduced for dealing with cosmological models. We show that it can be applied rather generically: anytime the spatial metric can be gauge-fixed to a diagonal form. The technique selects…
Normalizing the Einstein-Hilbert action by the volume functional makes the theory invariant under constant shifts in the Lagrangian. The associated field equations then resemble unimodular gravity whose otherwise arbitrary cosmological…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is developed, based on an analogy with a superconducting phaseshift in which free fermions coupled perturbatively to a weak gravitational field are in an unstable false vacuum state. The…
This essay elucidates recent achievements of the "nongravitating vacuum energy" (NGVE) theory" which has the feature that a shift of the Lagrangian density by a constant does not affect dynamics. In the first order formalism, a constraint…
A new kind of evolution for cyclic models in which the Hubble parameter oscillates and keeps positive has been explored in a specific $f(R,T)$ gravity reconstruction. A singularity-free cyclic universe with negative varying cosmological…
Loop quantum cosmology in (b, v) variables, which is governed by a unit step size difference equation, is embedded into a full theory context based on similar variables. A full theory context here means a theory of quantum gravity arrived…
New and non-trivial properties of off-shell instantons in loop quantum cosmology show that dynamical signature change naturally cures recently observed problems in the semiclassical path integral of quantum gravity. If left unsolved, these…
We describe the basic assumptions and key results of loop quantum gravity, which is a background independent approach to quantum gravity. The emphasis is on the basic physical principles and how one deduces predictions from them, at a level…
General relativity is a background-independent theory of a dynamical classical spacetime geometry. Quantum theory is formulated in a classical spacetime, as an intrinsically probabilistic, contextual theory of non-classical, interfering…
In this paper we consider the observables describing fundamental spatiotemporal properties and relations in the context of Quantum Gravity (QG). As we will show, in both Loop Quantum Gravity and in String Theory, these observables are…
The framework of quantum symmetry reduction is applied to loop quantum gravity with respect to transitively acting symmetry groups. This allows to test loop quantum gravity in a large class of minisuperspaces and to investigate its features…
Coupling any interacting quantum mechanical system to gravity in one (time) dimension requires the cosmological constant to belong to the matter energy spectrum and thus to be quantised, even though the gravity sector is free of any quantum…
Degenerate geometrical configurations in quantum gravity are important to understand if the fate of classical singularities is to be revealed. However, not all degenerate configurations arise on an equal footing, and one must take into…
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…
I describe a possible perspective on the current state of loop quantum gravity, at the light of the developments of the last years. I point out that a theory is now available, having a well-defined background-independent kinematics and a…
A model for a flat isotropic universe with a negative cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and a massless scalar field as sole matter content is studied within the framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology. By application of the methods introduced for…
I try to revive, and possibly reconcile, a debate started a few years ago, about the relative roles of a bare cosmological constant and of a vacuum energy, by taking the attitude to try to get the most from the physics now available as…
On the basis that the universe is a closed quantum system with no external observers, we propose a paradigm in which the universe jumps through a series of stages. Each stage is defined by a quantum state, an information content, and rules…
The search for a theory of quantum gravity is the most fundamental problem in all of theoretical physics, but there are as yet no experimental results at all to guide this endeavor. What seems to be needed is a pragmatic way to test if…
We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…