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Emergent Friedmann dynamics with a quantum bounce from quantum gravity condensates. (English) Zbl 1351.83073

Summary: We study the effective cosmological dynamics, emerging as the hydrodynamics of simple condensate states, of a group field theory (GFT) model for quantum gravity coupled to a massless scalar field and reduced to its isotropic sector. The quantum equations of motion for these GFT condensate states are given in relational terms with respect to the scalar field, from which effective dynamics for spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic space-times can be extracted. The result is a generalisation of the Friedmann equations, including quantum gravity modifications, in a specific regime of the theory corresponding to a Gross-Pitaevskii approximation where interactions are subdominant. The classical Friedmann equations of general relativity are recovered in a suitable semi-classical limit for some range of parameters of the microscopic dynamics. An important result is that the quantum geometries associated with these GFT condensate states are non-singular: a bounce generically occurs in the Planck regime. For some choices of condensate states, these modified Friedmann equations are very similar to those of loop quantum cosmology.

MSC:

83F05 Relativistic cosmology
83-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory
83C45 Quantization of the gravitational field
83C75 Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc.
81T20 Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds
03E05 Other combinatorial set theory
83D05 Relativistic gravitational theories other than Einstein’s, including asymmetric field theories