A Non-Polynomial Gravity Formulation for Loop Quantum Cosmology Bounce

Abstract

Recently the so-called mimetic gravity approach has been used to obtain corrections to the Friedmann equation of General Relativity similar to the ones present in loop quantum cosmology. In this paper, we propose an alternative way to derive this modified Friedmann equation via the so-called non-polynomial gravity approach, which consists of adding geometric non-polynomial higher derivative terms to Hilbert–Einstein action, which are nonetheless polynomials and lead to a second-order differential equation in Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker space-times. Our explicit action turns out to be a realization of the Helling proposal of effective action with an infinite number of terms. The model is also investigated in the presence of a non-vanishing cosmological constant, and a new exact bounce solution is found and studied.

Keywords

• cosmological bounces
• non-polynomial gravity
• effective action
• second-order equations of motion
• metric formalism
• cosmological constant
• perfect fluid
• exact regular solutions