Unitary evolution of the quantum Universe with a Brown–Kuchař dust

Abstract

We study the time evolution of a wave function for the spatially flat Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker Universe governed by the Wheeler–DeWitt equation in both analytical and numerical methods. We consider a Brown–Kuchař dust as a matter field in order to introduce a ‘clock’ in quantum cosmology and adopt the Laplace–Beltrami operator-ordering. The Hamiltonian operator admits an infinite number of self-adjoint extensions corresponding to a one-parameter family of boundary conditions at the origin in the minisuperspace. For any value of the extension parameter in the boundary condition, the evolution of a wave function is unitary and the classical initial singularity is avoided and replaced by the big bounce in the quantum system. Exact wave functions show that the expectation value of the spatial volume of the Universe obeys the classical-time evolution in the late time but its variance diverges.