Physical Sciences Forum (Mar 2023)
Quantum Gravitational Non-Singular Tunneling Wavefunction Proposal
Abstract
It has recently been shown that the tunneling wavefunction proposal is consistent with loop quantum geometry corrections, including both holonomy and inverse scale factor corrections, in the gravitational part of a spatially closed isotropic model with a positive cosmological constant. However, in the presence of inflationary potential, the initial singularity is kinetic-dominated, and the effective minisuperspace potential again diverges at the zero scale factor. As the wavefunction in loop quantum cosmology cannot increase towards the zero scale factor, the tunneling wavefunction seems incompatible. We show that consistently including inverse scale factor modifications, in scalar field Hamiltonian, changes the effective potential into a barrier potential, allowing the tunneling proposal. We also discuss the potential quantum instability of the cyclic universe, resulting from tunneling.
Keywords