Related papers: The Boundedness of Euclidean Gravity and the Wavef…
We consider the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction of the universe defined as a Euclidean path integral that satisfies the "no-boundary proposal." We focus on the simplest minisuperspace model that comprises a single scale factor degree of freedom…
We study canonical quantization of a closed Euclidean universe with a cosmological constant and a massless scalar field. The closed Euclidean universe with an ordinary matter state can be matched at a finite radius only with the closed…
The wave function of the universe is evaluated by using the Euclidean path integral approach. As is well known, the real Euclidean path integral diverges because the Einstein-Hilbert action is not positive definite. In order to obtain a…
We consider quantum general relativity in three dimensions with a positive cosmological constant. The Hartle-Hawking wave function is computed as a function of metric data at asymptotic future infinity. The analytic continuation from…
Quantum creation of the universe is described by the {\em density matrix} defined by the Euclidean path integral. This yields an ensemble of universes -- a cosmological landscape -- in a mixed quasi-thermal state which is shown to be…
It is remarkably difficult to reconcile unitary and Vilenkin's wave function. For example, the natural conserved inner product found in quantum unimodular gravity applies to the Hartle-Hawking wave function, but fails for its Vilenkin…
It is known that the action of Euclidean Einstein gravity is not bounded from below and that the metric of flat space does not correspond to a minimum of the action. Nevertheless, perturbation theory about flat space works well. The deep…
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…
We consider the quantum mechanics of Einstein gravity linearised about flat spacetime. The two transverse-traceless components of the metric perturbation are the true physical degrees of freedom. They appear in the quantum theory as free…
We show that that four dimensional conformal gravity plus a simple Neumann boundary condition can be used to get the semiclassical (or tree level) wavefunction of the universe of four dimensional asymptotically de-Sitter or Euclidean…
A discrete class of privileged reference frames in a closed universe with identical equations of motion for physical degrees of freedom was found. A representation of the quantum state of the universe in a privileged reference frame was…
In most attempts to compute the Hartle-Hawking ``wave function of the universe'' in Euclidean quantum gravity, two important approximations are made: the path integral is evaluated in a saddle point approximation, and only the leading…
We elucidate the nature of the correction to the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction presented in hep-th/$0505104$ and hep-th/$0406107$. The correction comes from the quantum fluctuation of the metric that spontaneously breaks the classical…
We show how it is possible to formulate Euclidean two-dimensional quantum gravity as the scaling limit of an ordinary statistical system by means of dynamical triangulations, which can be viewed as a discretization in the space of…
Quantum cosmology uses a wave function to model the universe, but finding solutions for this poses a problem as it is difficult to define the boundary conditions or identify the correct path for a path integral. We begin the discussion by…
The Wilsonian renormalization group (RG) requires Euclidean signature. The conformal factor of the metric then has a wrong-sign kinetic term, which has a profound effect on its RG properties. In particular around the Gaussian fixed point,…
We review some recent results concerning the Hartle--Hawking wavefunction of the universe. We focus on pure Einstein theory of gravity in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. We carefully implement the gauge-fixing procedure…
We suggest a novel picture of the quantum Universe -- its creation is described by the {\em density matrix} defined by the Euclidean path integral. This yields an ensemble of universes -- a cosmological landscape -- in a mixed state which…
Motivated by the conjecture that the cosmological constant problem is solved by strong quantum effects in the infrared we use the exact flow equation of Quantum Einstein Gravity to determine the renormalization group behavior of a class of…
We re-examine the Hartle-Hawking wave function from the point of view of a quantum theory which starts from the connection representation and allows for off-shell non-constancy of $\Lambda$ (as in unimodular theory), with a concomitant dual…