Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: According to the Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz scenario, a collapsing universe approaching a spacelike singularity can be approximated by homogeneous cosmological dynamics, but only if asymptotically small spatial regions are considered. It is shown here that the relevant small-volume behavior in solvable models of loop quantum cosmology is crucially different from the large-volume behavior exclusively studied so far. While bouncing solutions exist and may even be generic within a given quantum representation, they are not generic if quantization ambiguities such as choices of representations are taken into account. The analysis reveals an interesting interplay between sl(2, R )-representation theory and canonical effective theory.
Author: Martin Bojowald
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W2948200639