Loop quantum cosmology (LQC) seems to be predicting modified effective Friedmann equations without extra degrees of freedom. A puzzle arises if one decides to seek for a covariant effective action which would lead to the given Friedmann equation: The Einstein--Hilbert action is the only action that leads to second order field equations and, hence, there exists no covariant action which, under metric variation, leads to modified Friedmann equation without extra degrees of freedom. It is shown that, at least for isotropic models in LQC, this issue is naturally resolved and a covariant effective action can be found if one considers higher order theories of gravity but faithfully follows effective field theory techniques. However, our analysis also raises doubts on whether a covariant description without background structures can be found for anisotropic models.
We analytically derive the covariant form of the Riemann (curvature) tensor for homogeneous Metric-Affine Cosmologies. That is, we present, in a Cosmological setting, the most general covariant form of the full Riemann tensor including also its non-Riemannian pieces which are associated to spacetime torsion and non-metricity. Having done so we also compute a list of the curvature tensor by-products such as Ricci tensor, homothetic curvature, Ricci scalar, Einstein tensor etc. Finally we derive the generalized Metric-Affine version of the usual Gauss-Bonnet density in this background and demons…
Symmetric teleparallel gravity theories, in which the gravitational interaction is attributed to the nonmetricity of a flat, symmetric, but not metric-compatible affine connection, have been a topic of growing interest in recent studies. Numerous works study the cosmology of symmetric teleparallel gravity assuming a flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric, while working in the so-called "coincident gauge", further assuming that the connection coefficients vanish. However, little attention has been paid to the fact that both of these assumptions rely on the freedom to choose a particula…
The Big Bang initial singularity problem can be solved by means of bouncing solutions. In the context of extended theories of gravity, we will look for covariant effective actions whose field equations contain up to fourth-order derivatives of the metric tensor. In finding such bouncing solutions, we will make use of an order reduction technique based on a perturbative approach. Reducing the order of the field equations to second-order, we are able to find solutions which are perturbatively close to General Relativity. We will build the covariant effective actions of the resulting order reduce…
We explore the relationship between the effective dynamics in standard loop quantum cosmology (LQC) based on holonomies and triads obtained from gauge-fixing fluxes, and a modification of LQC based on holonomies and gauge-covariant fluxes (referred to as gLQC). Both the models yield singularity resolution via a bounce because of non-perturbative quantum geometric effects resulting in a maximum for energy density. In LQC, the bounce is extremely well captured by a $ρ^2$ term in energy density with a negative sign which emerges as a non-perturbative modification to the classical Friedmann and Ra…
Based on the observation that the exterior space-times of Schwarzschild-type solutions allow two symmetric slicings, a static spherically symmetric one and a timelike homogeneous one, modifications of gravitational dynamics suggested by symmetry-reduced models of quantum cosmology can be used to derive corresponding modified spherically symmetric equations. Generally covariant theories are much more restricted in spherical symmetry compared with homogeneous slicings, given by $1+1$-dimensional dilaton models if they are local. As shown here, modifications used in loop quantum cosmology do not …
We propose a new $\barμ$-scheme Hamiltonian effective dynamics in the spherical symmetric sector of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). The effective dynamics is generally covariant as derived from a covariant Lagrangian. The Lagrangian belongs to the class of extended mimetic gravity Lagrangians in 4 dimensions. We apply the effective dynamics to both cosmology and black hole. The effective dynamics reproduces the non-singular Loop-Quantum-Cosmology (LQC) effective dynamics. From the effective dynamics, we obtain the non-singular black hole solution, which has a killing symmetry in addition to the sp…
Partial reduction is a Randall-Sundrum reduction for only part of the AdS region between finite tension brane and zero tension brane. This is interesting in AdS/BCFT where the AdS bulk contains a defect brane. We employ partial reduction for a AdS bulk with a brane evolving as a $2d$ Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmology and demonstrate the equivalence between defect extremal surface and island formula for a large subregion fine grained entropy in boundary CFT. We then move to higher dimensions and demonstrate the existence of $4d$ massless graviton on AdS$_4$ brane in partial reduction. …
We study covariant equations in quantum cosmology of an extended minisuperspace obtained by the Eisenhart--Duval lift. We find that a Dirac-type equation is naturally introduced in the extended minisuperspace. Explicit forms of the fundamental solutions are yielded for specific models. The possible further development in this direction is also discussed.
Constraints on the Covariant Canonical Gauge Gravity (CCGG) theory from low-redshift cosmology are studied. The formulation extends Einstein's theory of General Relativity (GR) by a quadratic Riemann-Cartan term in the Lagrangian, controlled by a "deformation" parameter. In the Friedman universe this leads to an additional geometrical stress energy and promotes, due to the necessary presence of torsion, the cosmological constant to a time-dependent function. The MCMC analysis of the combined data sets of Type Ia Supernovae, Cosmic Chronometers and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations yields a fit that…
A bouncing universe is a viable candidate to solve the initial singularity problem. Here we consider bouncing solutions in the context of $f(R,\mathcal{G})$ gravity by using an order reduction technique which allows one to find solutions that are perturbatively close to General Relativity. This procedure also acts as a model selection approach. Indeed, several covariant gravitational actions leading to a bounce are directly selected by demanding that the Friedmann equation derived within such gravity theories coincides with the one emerging from Loop Quantum Cosmology.
The treatment of 1 + 3 covariant perturbation in a multifluid cosmology with the consideration of f (G) gravity, G being the Gauss-Bonnet term, is done in the present paper. We define a set of covariant and gauge-invariant variables to describe density, velocity and entropy perturbations for both the total matter and component fluids. We then use different techniques such as scalar decomposition, harmonic decomposition, quasi-static approximation together with the redshift transformation to get simplified perturbation equations for analysis. We then discuss number of interesting applications l…
Recent and upcoming experimental data as well as the possibility of rich phenomenology have spiked interest in studying the quantum effects in cosmology at low (inflation-era) energy scales. One of the approaches to find covariant quantum corrections is the DeWitt-Vilkovisky's (DV) covariant effective action formalism that is gauge invariant and background field invariant. We use the DeWitt-Vilkovisky method to study formal and cosmological aspects of quantum fields in curved spacetime, and take initial steps towards studying quantum gravitational corrections in cosmological setting. The thesi…
The partial Hamiltonian analysis of the Hořava-type action presented in the paper by M. Chaichian, S. Nojiri, S. D. Odintsov, M. Oksanen, A. Tureanu (Class. Quant. Grav. 27 (2011) 185021) is incorrect; for the authors' choice of variables, a covariant shift, instead of a contravariant shift which is the one usually used in General Relativity (GR) in ADM variables, the true algebra of constraints differs from what they presented. The algebra of constraints for their choice of variables is explicitly given for GR and compared with the standard algebra.
