Guillermo A. Mena Marugán

Hybrid quantum Gowdy cosmology: combining loop and Fock quantizations

We quantize an inhomogeneous cosmological model using techniques that include polymeric quantization. More explicitly, we construct well-defined operators to represent the constraints and find the physical Hilbert space formed by their solutions, which reproduces the conventional Fock quantization for the inhomogeneities. The initial singularity is resolved in this inhomogeneous model in an extremely simple way and without imposing special boundary conditions, thus ensuring the robustness and generality of this resolution. Furthermore, this quantization constitutes a well-founded step towards the extraction of physical results and consequences from loop quantum cosmology, given the central role of the inhomogeneities in modern cosmology.

Physical evolution in loop quantum cosmology: The example of the vacuum Bianchi I model

Supported by the Spanish MICINN Project FIS2008-06078-C03-03 and the ConsoliderIngenio 2010 Program CPAN (CSD2007-00042).Financial aid by the I3P Program of CSIC and the European Social Fund, the grant I3P-BPD2006. Also financial support by the Foundation for Polish Science under the grant Master

Hybrid quantization of an inflationary universe

We quantize to completion an inflationary universe with small inhomogeneities in the framework of loop quantum cosmology. The homogeneous setting consists of a massive scalar field propagating in a closed, homogeneous scenario. We provide a complete quantum description of the system employing loop quantization techniques. After introducing small inhomogeneities as scalar perturbations, we identify the true physical degrees of freedom by means of a partial gauge fixing, removing all the local degrees of freedom except the matter perturbations. We finally combine a Fock description for the inhomogeneities with the polymeric quantization of the homogeneous background, providing the quantum Hamiltonian constraint of the composed system. Its solutions are then completely characterized, owing to the suitable choice of quantum constraint, and the physical Hilbert space is constructed. Finally, we consider the analog description for an alternate gauge and, moreover, in terms of gauge-invariant quantities. In the deparametrized model, all these descriptions are unitarily equivalent at the quantum level.

Quantum time uncertainty in a gravity's rainbow formalism

The existence of a minimum time uncertainty is usually argued to be a consequence of the combination of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Most of the studies that point to this result are nonetheless based on perturbative quantization approaches, in which the effect of matter on the geometry is regarded as a correction to a classical background. In this paper, we consider rainbow spacetimes constructed from doubly special relativity by using a modification of the proposals of Magueijo and Smolin. In these models, gravitational effects are incorporated (at least to a certain extent) in the definition of the energy-momentum of particles without adhering to a perturbative treatment of the backreaction. In this context, we derive and compare the expressions of the time uncertainty in quantizations that use as evolution parameter either the background or the rainbow time coordinates. These two possibilities can be regarded as corresponding to perturbative and nonperturbative quantization schemes, respectively. We show that, while a nonvanishing time uncertainty is generically unavoidable in a perturbative framework, an infinite time resolution can in fact be achieved in a nonperturbative quantization for the whole family of doubly special relativity theories with unbounded physical energy.

Big Bounce and inhomogeneities

The dynamics of an inhomogeneous universe is studied with the methods of loop quantum cosmology, via a so-called hybrid quantization, as an example of the quantization of vacuum cosmological spacetimes containing gravitational waves (Gowdy spacetimes). The analysis of this model with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, performed at the effective level, shows that (i) the initial Big Bang singularity is replaced (as in the case of homogeneous cosmological models) by a Big Bounce, joining deterministically two large universes, (ii) the universe size at the bounce is at least of the same order of magnitude as that of the background homogeneous universe and (iii) for each gravitational wave mode, the difference in amplitude at very early and very late times has a vanishing statistical average when the bounce dynamics is strongly dominated by the inhomogeneities, whereas this average is positive when the dynamics is in a near-vacuum regime, so that statistically the inhomogeneities are amplified.

Prescriptions in loop quantum cosmology: A comparative analysis

This work was supported in part by the MICINN under Project No. FIS2008-06078-C03-03 and the Consolider-Ingenio program CPAN, under Contract No. CSD2007-00042, from Spain, and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. T. P. acknowledges also the hospitality of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of Warsaw University and the financial support of Minister Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyzszego under Grant No. N N202 104838. J. O. acknowledges the support of CSIC under Grant No. JAE-Pre 0800791.

Quantum Gowdy T3 model: a unitary description

The quantization of the family of linearly polarized Gowdy T{sup 3} spacetimes is discussed in detail, starting with a canonical analysis in which the true degrees of freedom are described by a scalar field that satisfies a Klein-Gordon type equation in a fiducial time-dependent background. A time-dependent canonical transformation, which amounts to a change of the basic (scalar) field of the model, brings the system to a description in terms of a Klein-Gordon equation on a background that is now static, although subject to a time-dependent potential. The system is quantized by means of a natural choice of annihilation and creation operators. The quantum time evolution is considered and shown to be unitary, so that both the Schroedinger and Heisenberg pictures can be consistently constructed. This has to be contrasted with previous treatments for which time evolution failed to be implementable as a unitary transformation. Possible implications for both canonical quantum gravity and quantum field theory in curved spacetime are noted.

Matter in inhomogeneous loop quantum cosmology: the Gowdy

We apply a hybrid approach which combines loop and Fock quantizations to fully quantize the linearly polarized Gowdy T{sup 3} model in the presence of a massless scalar field with the same symmetries as the metric. Like in the absence of matter content, the application of loop techniques leads to a quantum resolution of the classical cosmological singularity. Most importantly, thanks to the inclusion of matter, the homogeneous sector of the model contains flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solutions, which are not allowed in vacuo. Therefore, this model provides a simple setting to study at the quantum level interesting physical phenomena such as the effect of the anisotropies and inhomogeneities on flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies.

T^3

We study cosmological perturbations in the framework of loop quantum cosmology, using a hybrid quantization approach and Mukhanov–Sasaki variables. The formulation in terms of these gauge invariants allows one to clarify the independence of the results on choices of gauge and facilitates the comparison with other approaches proposed to deal with cosmological perturbations in the context of loop quantum theory. A kind of Born–Oppenheimer ansatz is employed to extract the dynamics of the inhomogeneous perturbations, separating them from the degrees of freedom of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker geometry. With this ansatz, we derive an approximate Schrodinger equation for the cosmological perturbations and study its range of validity. We also prove that, with an alternate factor ordering, the dynamics deduced for the perturbations is similar to the one found in the so-called dressed metric approach, apart from a possible scaling of the matter field in order to preserve its unitary evolution in the regime of quantum field theory in a curved background and some quantization prescription issues. Finally, we obtain the effective equations that are naturally associated with the Mukhanov–Sasakivariables, both with and without introducing the Born–Oppenheimer ansatz, and with the different factor orderings that we have studied.

model

We present a complete quantization of an approximately homogeneous and isotropic universe with small scalar perturbations. We consider the case in which the matter content is a minimally coupled scalar field and the spatial sections are flat and compact, with the topology of a three-torus. The quantization is carried out along the lines that were put forward by the authors in a previous work for spherical topology. The action of the system is truncated at second order in perturbations. The local gauge freedom is fixed at the classical level, although different gauges are discussed and shown to lead to equivalent conclusions. Moreover, descriptions in terms of gauge-invariant quantities are considered. The reduced system is proven to admit a symplectic structure, and its dynamical evolution is dictated by a Hamiltonian constraint. Then, the background geometry is polymerically quantized, while a Fock representation is adopted for the inhomogeneities. The latter is selected by uniqueness criteria adapted from quantum field theory in curved spacetimes, which determine a specific scaling of the perturbations. In our hybrid quantization, we promote the Hamiltonian constraint to an operator on the kinematical Hilbert space. If the zero mode of the scalar field is interpreted as a relational time, a suitable ansatz for the dependence of the physical states on the polymeric degrees of freedom leads to a quantum wave equation for the evolution of the perturbations. Alternatively, the solutions to the quantum constraint can be characterized by their initial data on the minimum-volume section of each superselection sector. The physical implications of this model will be addressed in a future work, in order to check whether they are compatible with observations.