States In Loop Quantum Cosmology Research Articles

Taming fluctuations for Gaussian states in loop quantum cosmology

We do not observe quantum effects on cosmological scales. Thus, if loop quantum cosmology (LQC) is to provide an accurate depiction of the real world, it must allow for quantum states of spacetime geometry which are semi-classical in two respects: they must be sharply peaked around a single, classical geometry, and they must have small quantum fluctuations. It is generally assumed that Gaussian states exhibit both of these properties. After all, they do in ordinary quantum mechanics. In this paper, we derive exact closed-form expressions for the fluctuations of Gaussian states in LQC and their lower bound given by the Robertson-Schr\"odinger inequality. We demonstrate that, contrary to ordinary quantum mechanics, fluctuations for Gaussian states in spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic LQC diverge as the state variance increases (as well as in related cosmological models with the same kinematic Hilbert space and canonical observables). However, when the holonomy length is made to scale with a volume regularization parameter, these fluctuations may be arbitrarily suppressed by taking the fiducial volume to be large, providing analytic control over their divergence. Finally, we show that, despite this, Gaussian states in LQC generally do not minimize uncertainty. Moreover, it is conjectured that no such minimal-uncertainty states exist. Throughout this work, it becomes clear how important the often-assumed condition of holonomy length volume-scaling is; we show that when this condition is violated, the resulting theory exhibits operator closure pathologies and other exotic algebraic features.

Properties of Fluctuating States in Loop Quantum Cosmology

In loop quantum cosmology, the values of volume fluctuations and correlations determine whether the dynamics of an evolving state exhibits a bounce. Of particular interest are states that are supported only on either the positive or the negative part of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian that generates this evolution. It is shown here that the restricted support on the spectrum does not significantly limit the possible values of volume fluctuations.

Numerical evolution of squeezed and non-Gaussian states in loop quantum cosmology

In recent years, numerical simulations with Gaussian initial states have demonstrated the existence of a quantum bounce in loop quantum cosmology in various models. A key issue pertaining to the robustness of the bounce and the associated physics is to understand the quantum evolution for more general initial states, which may depart significantly from Gaussianity and may have no well defined peakedness properties. The analysis of such states, including squeezed and highly non-Gaussian states, has been computationally challenging until now. In this paper, we overcome these challenges by using the Chimera scheme for the spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic model sourced with a massless scalar field. We demonstrate that the quantum bounce in this model occurs even for states that are highly squeezed or are non-Gaussian with multiple peaks and with little resemblance to semi-classical states. The existence of the bounce is found to be robust, being independent of the properties of the states. The evolution of squeezed and non-Gaussian states turns out to be qualitatively similar to that of Gaussian states, and satisfies strong constraints on the growth of the relative fluctuations across the bounce. We also compare the results from the effective dynamics and find that, although it captures the qualitative aspects of the evolution for squeezed and highly non-Gaussian states, it always underestimates the bounce volume. We show that various properties of the evolution, such as the energy density at the bounce, are in excellent agreement with the predictions from an exactly solvable loop quantum cosmological model for arbitrary states.

Relating loop quantum cosmology to loop quantum gravity: symmetric sectors and embeddings

In this paper we address the meaning of states in loop quantum cosmology (LQC), in the context of loop quantum gravity. First, we introduce a rigorous formulation of an embedding proposed by Bojowald and Kastrup, of LQC states into loop quantum gravity. Then, using certain holomorphic representations, a new class of embeddings, called b-embeddings, are constructed, following the ideas of Engle (2006 Quantum field theory and its symmetry reduction Class. Quantum Gravity 23 2861–94). We exhibit a class of operators preserving each of these embeddings, and show their consistency with the LQC quantization. In the b-embedding case, the classical analogues of these operators separate points in phase space. Embedding at the gauge and diffeomorphism invariant level is discussed briefly in the conclusions.