On the possibility of Dark Energy from corrections to the Wheeler-De Witt equation

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum gravity corrections to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation might lead to phenomena resembling dark energy and dark matter at large scales, suggesting these could be manifestations of quantum gravity effects.

Contribution

It introduces a method to approximate quantum gravity corrections to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and links these corrections to potential large-scale cosmological phenomena.

Findings

Quantum gravity corrections can cause deviations from classical physics at large scales.

These corrections can be interpreted as additional matter components like dark energy.

First order loop quantum cosmology corrections can break down at large scales.

Abstract

We present a method for approximating the effective consequence of generic quantum gravity corrections to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We show that in many cases these corrections can produce departures from classical physics at large scales and that this behaviour can be interpreted as additional matter components. This opens up the possibility that dark energy (and possible dark matter) could be large scale manifestations of quantum gravity corrections to classical general relativity. As a specific example we examine the first order corrections to the Wheeler-De Witt equation arising from loop quantum cosmology in the absence of lattice refinement and show how the ultimate breakdown in large scale physics occurs.