Classical Spacetime from Quantum Gravity

We give an introduction into quantum cosmology with emphasis on its conceptual parts. After a general motivation we review the formalism of canonical quantum gravity on which discussions of quantum cosmology are usually based. We then present the minisuperspace Wheeler--DeWitt equation and elaborate on the problem of time, the imposition of boundary conditions, the semiclassical approximation, the origin of irreversibility, and singularity avoidance. Restriction is made to th...

In the semiclassical quantum gravity derived from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the energy density of a matter field loses quantum coherence due to the induced gauge potential from the parametric interaction with gravity in a non-static spacetime. It is further shown that the energy density takes only positive values and makes superposition principle hold true. By studying a minimal massive scalar field in a FRW spacetime background, we illustrate the positivity of energy dens...

We study the classical and quantum models of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmology, coupled to a perfect fluid, in the context of the scalar-metric gravity. Using the Schutz' representation for the perfect fluid, we show that, under a particular gauge choice, it may lead to the identification of a time parameter for the corresponding dynamical system. It is shown that the evolution of the universe based on the classical cosmology represents a late time power law expans...

Quantum geometrodynamics is canonical quantum gravity with the three-metric as the configuration variable. Its central equation is the Wheeler--DeWitt equation. Here I give an overview of the status of this approach. The issues discussed include the problem of time, the relation to the covariant theory, the semiclassical approximation as well as applications to black holes and cosmology. I conclude that quantum geometrodynamics is still a viable approach and provides insights...

Quantum cosmology based on the Wheeler De Witt equation represents a simple way to implement plausible quantum effects in a gravitational setup. In its minisuperspace version wherein one restricts attention to FLRW metrics with a single scale factor and only a few degrees of freedom describing matter, one can obtain exact solutions and thus acquire full knowledge of the wave function. Although this is the usual way to treat a quantum mechanical system, it turns out however to...

We re-examine the notions of time and evolution in the light of the mathematical properties of the solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation which are revealed by an extended adiabatic treatment. The main advantage of this treatment is to organize the solutions in series that make explicit both the connections with the corresponding Schr\"odinger equation as well as the modifications introduced by the quantum character of gravity. When the universe is macroscopic, the ordered ...

We consider the gravity interacting with matter scalar fields and quantized in the minisuperspace approach in which the wave functional is described by the Wheeler-DeWitt equations (WdW). Assuming the domination of the homogeneous and isotropic geometry the leading contributions to the wave functional in the approximation of the minisuperspace with Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric (FRW) and spatially uniform scalar fields are considered. The model of several scalar fields wi...

For a FRW-spacetime coupled to an arbitrary real scalar field, we endow the solution space of the associated Wheeler-DeWitt equation with a Hilbert-space structure, construct the observables, and introduce the physical wave functions of the universe that admit a genuine probabilistic interpretation. We also discuss a proposal for the formulation of the dynamics. The approach to quantum cosmology outlined in this article is based on the results obtained within the theory of ps...

In this paper we study the effects of including anisotropic scaling invariance in the minisuperspace Lagrangian for a universe modelled by the Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric, a massless scalar field and cosmological constant. We find that canonical quantization of this system leads to a Schroedinger type equation, thus avoiding the frozen time problem of the usual Wheeler-DeWitt equation. Furthermore, we find numerical solutions for the classical equations of motion, and we...

We quantize a flat FRW cosmology in the context of the $f(R)$ gravity by Noether symmetry approach. We explicitly calculate the form of $f(R)$ for which such symmetries exist. It is shown that the existence of a Noether symmetry yields a general solution of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation where can be expressed as a superposition of states of the form $e^{iS}$. In terms of Hartle criterion, this type of wave function exhibits classical correlations, i.e. the emergent of classical...