Related papers: Quantum Fields in a Big Crunch/Big Bang Spacetime
We present a rigorous formulation of the Quantum Big Bounce for the closed isotropic Universe, filled with a self-interacting scalar field, that emerges from the interaction with an ekpyrotic potential. Working in a covariant approach to…
The canonical commutation relations of quantum field theory require all pairs of observables located in spacelike-separated regions to commute. In the theory as it is currently constituted, this implies that the information-carrying…
We revisit the quantum theory of a massive, minimally coupled scalar field, propagating on the Planck-era isotropic cosmological quantum spacetime which transitions to a classical spacetime in later times. The quantum effects modify the…
Some long standing issues concerning the quantum nature of the big bang are resolved in the context of homogeneous isotropic models with a scalar field. Specifically, the known results on the resolution of the big bang singularity in loop…
We argue that the conventional quantum field theory in curved spacetime has a grave drawback: The canonical commutation relations for quantum fields and conjugate momenta do not hold. Thus the conventional theory should be denounced and the…
In a quantum theory of cosmology spacetime behaves classically only in limited patches of the configuration space on which the wave function of the universe is defined. Quantum transitions can connect classical evolution in different…
Based on concepts drawn from the ekpyrotic scenario and M-theory, we elaborate our recent proposal of a cyclic model of the Universe. In this model, the Universe undergoes an endless sequence of cosmic epochs which begin with the Universe…
We consider the ekpyrotic paradigm in the context of loop quantum cosmology. In loop quantum cosmology the classical big-bang singularity is resolved due to quantum gravity effects, and so the contracting ekpyrotic branch of the universe…
In quantum field theory, particle creation occurs, in general, when an intense external field, such as an electromagnetic field, breaks time translational invariance. This leads to an ambiguity in the definition of the vacuum state. In…
This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity (from string theory and loop quantum gravity) to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of the big bang. While the classical…
The concept of a particle is ambiguous in quantum field theory. It is generally agreed that particles depend not only on spacetime, but also on coordinates used to parametrise spacetime points. One of us has in contrast proposed a…
The general boundary formulation of quantum field theory is applied to a massive scalar field in two dimensional Rindler space. The field is quantized according to both the Schr\"odinger-Feynman quantization prescription and the holomorphic…
In this paper, quantum theory of a real massive scalar field in the background of a traversable wormhole is examined. The wormhole is supposed to connect two different universes; as a particular example the simplest Ellis wormhole is…
We consider conditions under which a universe contracting towards a big crunch can make a transition to an expanding big bang universe. A promising example is 11-dimensional M-theory in which the eleventh dimension collapses, bounces, and…
The exactly solvable quantum model of the homogeneous, isotropic and closed universe in the matter-energy production epoch is considered. It is assumed that the universe is originally filled with a uniform scalar field and a perfect fluid…
A quantum scalar field theory with spacetime-dependent coupling is studied. Surprisingly, while translation invariance is explicitly broken in the classical theory, momentum conservation is recovered at the quantum level for some specific…
The quantum nature of the Big Bang is reexamined in the framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology. The strict application of a regularization procedure to the Hamiltonian, originally developed for the Hamiltonian in loop quantum gravity, leads to…
Quantum field theory is used to describe the contribution of possible new QCD vacuum replica to hadronic processes. This sigma-like new state has been recently shown to be likely to appear for any realistic four-quark interaction kernel as…
This elementary introduction to string field theory highlights the features and the limitations of this approach to quantum gravity as it is currently understood. String field theory is a formulation of string theory as a field theory in…
A fundamental length is introduced into physics in a way which respects the principles of relativity and quantum field theory. This improves the properties of quantum field theory: divergences are removed. How to quantize gravity is also…