Mixmaster Universe Research Articles

Can a quantum mixmaster universe undergo a spontaneous inflationary phase?

Can a quantum mixmaster universe undergo a spontaneous inflationary phase?

Mixmaster Universe: Semiclassical Dynamics and Inflation from Bouncing

Mixmaster Universe: Semiclassical Dynamics and Inflation from Bouncing

Weyl Curvature Hypothesis in Light of Quantum Backreaction at Cosmological Singularities or Bounces

The Weyl curvature constitutes the radiative sector of the Riemann curvature tensor and gives a measure of the anisotropy and inhomogeneities of spacetime. Penrose’s 1979 Weyl curvature hypothesis (WCH) assumes that the universe began at a very low gravitational entropy state, corresponding to zero Weyl curvature, namely, the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) universe. This is a simple assumption with far-reaching implications. In classical general relativity, Belinsky, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz (BKL) showed in the 70s that the most general cosmological solutions of the Einstein equation are that of the inhomogeneous Kasner types, with intermittent alteration of the one direction of contraction (in the cosmological expansion phase), according to the mixmaster dynamics of Misner (M). How could WCH and BKL-M co-exist? An answer was provided in the 80s with the consideration of quantum field processes such as vacuum particle creation, which was copious at the Planck time (10−43 s), and their backreaction effects were shown to be so powerful as to rapidly damp away the irregularities in the geometry. It was proposed that the vaccum viscosity due to particle creation can act as an efficient transducer of gravitational entropy (large for BKL-M) to matter entropy, keeping the universe at that very early time in a state commensurate with the WCH. In this essay I expand the scope of that inquiry to a broader range, asking how the WCH would fare with various cosmological theories, from classical to semiclassical to quantum, focusing on their predictions near the cosmological singularities (past and future) or avoidance thereof, allowing the Universe to encounter different scenarios, such as undergoing a phase transition or a bounce. WCH is of special importance to cyclic cosmologies, because any slight irregularity toward the end of one cycle will generate greater anisotropy and inhomogeneities in the next cycle. We point out that regardless of what other processes may be present near the beginning and the end states of the universe, the backreaction effects of quantum field processes probably serve as the best guarantor of WCH because these vacuum processes are ubiquitous, powerful and efficient in dissipating the irregularities to effectively nudge the Universe to a near-zero Weyl curvature condition.

Quasi-Isotropic Cycles and Nonsingular Bounces in a Mixmaster Cosmology.

A Bianchi type-IX mixmaster spacetime is the most general spatially homogeneous solution of Einstein's equations and it can represent the space-averaged universe. We introduce two novel mechanisms resulting in a mixmaster universe with nonsingular bounces that are quasi-isotropic. Matter with a nonlinear equation of state allows these bounces. Using a negative anisotropic stress successfully isotropizes this universe and mitigates the well-known mixmaster chaotic behavior. The Universe can be an eternal mixmaster spacetime, going through an infinite series of quasi-isotropic cycles separated by bounces.

Quantum Toda-like regularisation of the Mixmaster anisotropy

Regularisation approach to the study of the quantum dynamics of the Mixmaster universe is presented. This allows to approximate the anisotropy potential with the explicitly integrable periodic 3-particle Toda system. Such approach is based on a covariant Weyl-Heisenberg integral quantization which naturally amplifies the dynamical role of the underlying Toda system by smoothing out the three canyons of the anisotropy potential.

Integrable Toda system as a quantum approximation to the anisotropy of the mixmaster universe

We present a regularisation approach to the study of the quantum dynamics of the Mixmaster universe which allows to approximate the anisotropy potential with the explicitly integrable periodic 3-particle Toda system. This approach is based on a covariant Weyl-Heisenberg integral quantization. Such a procedure naturally amplifies the dynamical role of the underlying Toda system by smoothing out the three canyons of the anisotropy potential. Since the respective eigenfunctions can be explicitly constructed, our finding paves the way to a novel perturbative approach to the quantum Mixmaster dynamics.

The loop quantum cosmology bounce as a Kasner transition

For the Bianchi type I space-time (vacuum or with a massless scalar field), the loop quantum cosmology bounce can be viewed as a rapid transition between two classical solutions, with a simple transformation rule relating the Kasner exponents of the two epochs. This transformation rule can be extended to other Bianchi space-times under the assumption that during the loop quantum cosmology bounce the contribution of the spatial curvature to the Hamiltonian constraint is negligible compared to the kinetic terms. For the vacuum Bianchi type IX space-time there are transformation rules for how each of the parameters characterizing the Kasner epochs change during the bounce. This provides a quantum gravity extension to the Mixmaster dynamics of general relativity, and may have interesting implications for the Belinski–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz conjecture.

Evolution of cyclic mixmaster universes with noncomoving radiation

We study a model of a cyclic, spatially homogeneous, anisotropic 'mixmaster' universe of Bianchi type IX, containing a radiation field with non-comoving ('tilted' with respect to the tetrad frame of reference) velocities and vorticity. We employ a combination of numerical and approximate analytic methods to investigate the consequences of the second law of thermodynamics on the evolution. We model a smooth cycle-to-cycle evolution of the mixmaster universe, bouncing at a finite minimum, by the device of adding a comoving 'ghost' field with negative energy density. In the absence of a cosmological constant, an increase in entropy, injected at the start of each cycle, causes an increase in the volume maxima, increasing approach to flatness, falling velocities and vorticities, and growing anisotropy at the expansion maxima of successive cycles. We find that the velocities oscillate rapidly as they evolve and change logarithmically in time relative to the expansion volume. When the conservation of momentum and angular momentum constraints are imposed, the spatial components of these velocities fall to smaller values when the entropy density increases, and vice versa. Isotropisation is found to occur when a positive cosmological constant is added because the sequence of oscillations ends and the dynamics expand forever, evolving towards a quasi de Sitter asymptote with constant velocity amplitudes. The case of a single cycle of evolution with a negative cosmological constant added is also studied.

The shape of bouncing universes

What happens to the most general closed oscillating universes in general relativity? We sketch the development of interest in cyclic universes from the early work of Friedmann and Tolman to modern variations introduced by the presence of a cosmological constant. Then we show what happens in the cyclic evolution of the most general closed anisotropic universes provided by the Mixmaster universe. We show that in the presence of entropy increase its cycles grow in size and age, increasingly approaching flatness. But these cycles also grow increasingly anisotropic at their expansion maxima. If there is a positive cosmological constant, or dark energy, present then these oscillations always end and the last cycle evolves from an anisotropic inflexion point towards a de Sitter future of everlasting expansion.

Spectral properties of the quantum Mixmaster universe

We study the spectral properties of the anisotropic part of the Hamiltonian entering the quantum dynamics of the Mixmaster universe. We derive the explicit asymptotic expressions for the energy spectrum in the limit of large and small volumes of the universe. Then, we study the threshold condition between both regimes. Finally, we prove that the spectrum is purely discrete for any volume of the universe. Our results validate and improve the known approximations to the anisotropy potential. They should be useful for any approach to the quantization of the Mixmaster universe.

Hořava–Lifshitz gravity inspired Bianchi-II cosmology and the mixmaster universe

We study different aspects of the Hořava-Lifshitz inspired Bianchi-II cosmology and its relations with the mixmaster universe model. First, we present exact solutions for a toy model, where only the cubic in spatial curvature terms are present in the action; then we briefly discuss some exotic singularities, which can appear in this toy model. We study also the toy model where only the quadratic in spatial curvature terms are present in the action. We establish relations between our results and those obtained by using the Hamiltonian formalism. Finally, we apply the results obtained by studying Bianchi-II cosmology to describe the evolution of the mixmaster universe in terms of the Belinsky–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz formalism. Generally, our analysis gives some arguments in favour of the existence of the oscillatory approach to the singularity in a universe governed by the Hořava–Lifshitz type gravity.

Nonadiabatic bounce and an inflationary phase in the quantum mixmaster universe

Following our previous paper, Bergeron et al, Smooth quantum dynamics of the mixmaster universe, Phys. Rev. D 92, 061302(R) (2015), concerning the quantization of the vacuum Bianchi IX model and the Born-Huang-Oppenheimer framework, we present a further analysis of the dynamical properties of the model. Consistently with the deep quantum regime, we implement the harmonic approximation of the anisotropy potential. We thus obtain manageable dynamical equations. We study the quantum anisotropic oscillations during the bouncing phase of the universe. Neglecting the backreaction from transitions between quantum anisotropy states we obtain analytical results. In particular, we identify a parameter which is associated with dynamical properties of the quantum model and describes a sort of phase transition. Once the parameter exceeds its critical value, the Born-Huang-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down. The application of the present result to a simple model of the Universe indicates that the parameter indeed exceeds its critical value and that there takes place a huge production of anisotropy at the bounce. This in turn must lead to a sustained phase of accelerated expansion, an inflationary phase. The quantitative inclusion of backreaction shall be examined in a follow-up paper based on the vibronic approach.

Chaos removal inR+qR2gravity: The mixmaster model

We study the asymptotic dynamics of the Mixmaster Universe, near the cosmological singularity, considering $f(R)$ gravity up to a quadratic corrections in the Ricci scalar $R$. The analysis is performed in the scalar-tensor framework and adopting Misner-Chitr\'e-like variables to describe the Mixmaster Universe, whose dynamics resembles asymptotically a billiard-ball in a given domain of the half-Poincar\'e space. The form of the potential well depends on the spatial curvature of the model and on the particular form of the self-interacting scalar field potential. We demonstrate that the potential walls determine an open domain in the configuration region, allowing the point-Universe to reach the absolute of the considered Lobachevsky space. In other words, we outline the existence of a stable final Kasner regime in the Mixmaster evolution, implying the chaos removal near the cosmological singularity. The relevance of the present issue relies both on the general nature of the considered dynamics, allowing its direct extension to the BKL conjecture too, as well as the possibility to regard the considered modified theory of gravity as the first correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action as a Taylor expansion of a generic function $f(R)$ (as soon as a cut-off on the space-time curvature takes place).

Big Bang, Blowup, and Modular Curves: Algebraic Geometry in Cosmology

We introduce some algebraic geometric models in cosmology related to the "boundaries" of space-time: Big Bang, Mixmaster Universe, Penrose's crossovers between aeons. We suggest to model the kinematics of Big Bang using the algebraic geometric (or analytic) blow up of a point $x$. This creates a boundary which consists of the projective space of tangent directions to $x$ and possibly of the light cone of $x$. We argue that time on the boundary undergoes the Wick rotation and becomes purely imaginary. The Mixmaster (Bianchi IX) model of the early history of the universe is neatly explained in this picture by postulating that the reverse Wick rotation follows a hyperbolic geodesic connecting imaginary time axis to the real one. Penrose's idea to see the Big Bang as a sign of crossover from "the end of previous aeon" of the expanding and cooling Universe to the "beginning of the next aeon" is interpreted as an identification of a natural boundary of Minkowski space at infinity with the Big Bang boundary.

Semiclassical and quantum behavior of the mixmaster model in the polymer approach

We analyze the quantum dynamics of the Bianchi Type IX model, as described in the so-called polymer representation of quantum mechanics, to characterize the modifications that a discrete na- ture in the anisotropy variables of the Universe induces on the morphology of the cosmological sin- gularity. We first perform a semiclassical analysis, to be regarded as the zeroth-order approximation of a WKB (Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin) approximation of the quantum dynamics, and demonstrate how the features of polymer quantum mechanics are able to remove the chaotic properties of the Bianchi IX dynamics. Then, we address the study of the full quantum dynamics of this model in the polymer representation and analyze the two cases, in which the Bianchi IX spatial curvature does not affect the wave-packet behavior, as well as the instance, for which it plays the role of an infinite potential confining the dynamics of the anisotropic variables. The main development of this analysis consists of investigating how, differently from the standard canonical quantum evolution, the high quantum number states are not preserved arbitrarily close to the cosmological singularity. This property emerges as a consequence, on one hand, of the no longer chaotic features of the classical dynamics (on which the Misner analysis is grounded), and, on the other hand, of the impossibility to remove the quantum effect due to the spatial curvature. In the polymer picture, the quantum evolution of the Bianchi IX model remains always significantly far from the semiclassical behavior, as far as both the wave-packet spread and the occupation quantum numbers are concerned. As a result, from a quantum point of view, the Mixmaster dynamics loses any predictivity characterization for the discrete nature of the Universe anisotropy.

NONCOMMUTATIVE MIXMASTER COSMOLOGIES

In this paper we investigate a variant of the classical mixmaster universe model of anisotropic cosmology, where the spatial sections are noncommutative 3-tori. We consider ways in which the discrete dynamical system describing the mixmaster dynamics can be extended to act on the noncommutative torus moduli, and how the resulting dynamics differs from the classical one, for example, in the appearance of exotic smooth structures. We discuss properties of the spectral action, focussing on how the slow-roll inflation potential determined by the spectral action affects the mixmaster dynamics. We relate the model to other recent results on spectral action computation and we identify other physical contexts in which this model may be relevant.

Mixmaster universe in the z = 3 deformed Hořava-Lifshitz gravity

The z=3 deformed Horava-Lifshitz gravity with coupling constants \omega and \epsilon leads to a nonrelativistic "mixmaster" cosmological model. The potential of theory is given by the sum of IR and UV potentials in the ADM Hamiltonian formalism. It turns out that the presence of the UV-potential cannot suppress chaotic behaviors existing in the IR-potential, which comes from curvature anisotropy.

The mixmaster universe in Hořava–Lifshitz gravity

We consider spatially homogeneous (but generally non-isotropic) cosmologies in the recently proposed Hořava–Lifshitz gravity and compare them to those of general relativity using Hamiltonian methods. In all cases, the problem is described by an effective point particle moving in a potential well with exponentially steep walls. Focusing on the closed-space cosmological model (Bianchi type IX), the mixmaster dynamics is now completely dominated by the quadratic Cotton tensor potential term for a very small volume of the universe. Unlike general relativity, where the evolution toward the initial singularity always exhibits chaotic behavior with alternating Kasner epochs, the anisotropic universe in Hořava–Lifshitz gravity (with parameter λ > 1/3) is described by a particle moving in a frozen potential well with fixed (but arbitrary) energy E. Alternating Kasner epochs still provide a good description of the early universe for very large E, but the evolution appears to be non-ergodic. For very small E there are harmonic oscillations around the fully isotropic model. The question of chaos remains open for intermediate energy levels.

The Mixmaster Universe in a generalized uncertainty principle framework

The Bianchi IX cosmological model is analyzed in a generalized uncertainty principle framework. The Arnowitt–Deser–Misner reduction of the dynamics is performed and a time-coordinate, namely the volume of the Universe, naturally arises. Such a variable is treated in the ordinary way while the anisotropies (the physical degrees of freedom) are described by a deformed Heisenberg algebra. The analysis of the model (passing through Bianchi I and II) is performed at classical level by studying the modifications induced on the symplectic geometry by the deformed algebra. We show that the Universe cannot isotropize because of the deformed Kasner dynamics, the triangular allowed domain is asymptotically stationary with respect to the particle (Universe) and its bounces against the walls are not interrupted by the deformed effects. Furthermore, no reflection law can be in general obtained since the Bianchi II model is no longer analytically integrable. This way, the deformed Mixmaster Universe can be still considered as a chaotic system.

Appearance of a classical mixmaster universe from the no-boundary quantum state

We investigate the appearance of the classical anisotropic universe from the no-boundary quantum state according to the prescription proposed by Hartle, Hawking, and Hertog. Our model is homogeneous, anisotropic, closed universes with a minimally coupled scalar field and cosmological constant. We found that there are an ensemble of classical Lorentzian histories with anisotropies and experience inflationary expansion at late time, and the probability of histories with anisotropies are lower than isotropic histories. Thus, the no-boundary condition may be able to explain the emergence of our Universe. If the classical late time histories are extended back, some become singular by the existence of initial anisotropies with large accelerations. However, we do not find any chaotic behavior of anisotropies near the initial singularity.