Inflationary cosmology and quantization ambiguities in semiclassical loop quantum gravity

Abstract

In loop quantum gravity, modifications to the geometrical density cause a self-interacting scalar field to accelerate away from a minimum of its potential. In principle, this mechanism can generate the conditions that subsequently lead to slow-roll inflation. The consequences for this mechanism of various quantization ambiguities arising within loop quantum cosmology are considered. For the case of a quadratic potential, it is found that some quantization procedures are more likely to generate a phase of slow-roll inflation. In general, however, loop quantum cosmology is robust to ambiguities in the quantization and extends the range of initial conditions for inflation.