Can quantum gravitational effects influence the entire history of the Universe?

In this work, a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with dust and a cosmological constant is quantized. By means of a canonical transformation, the classical Hamiltonian is reduced to that of either a harmonic oscillator or anti-oscillator, depending on whether {lambda}0, respectively. In this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. D, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2008-07, Vol.78 (2), Article 023504
Main Authors: Barboza, Edésio M., Lemos, Nivaldo A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CANONICAL TRANSFORMATIONS
COSMIC DUST
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
EQUATIONS
EXACT SOLUTIONS
EXPANSION
HAMILTONIANS
HARMONIC OSCILLATORS
OSCILLATORS
PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUANTUM GRAVITY
SIMULATION
UNIVERSE
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Summary:In this work, a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with dust and a cosmological constant is quantized. By means of a canonical transformation, the classical Hamiltonian is reduced to that of either a harmonic oscillator or anti-oscillator, depending on whether {lambda}0, respectively. In this way, exact solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation can easily be obtained. It turns out that a positive cosmological constant alone may account for an early inflationary regime and a later accelerated expansion phase, with a period of decelerated expansion in between. This suggests that quantum-gravitational effects can influence most of the history or even the entire history of the Universe.
ISSN:1550-7998
0556-2821
1550-2368
1089-4918
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.023504