Bianchi type I, Schutz perfect fluid and evolutionary quantum cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores classical and quantum cosmology of a Bianchi type I universe with a perfect fluid, using Schutz formalism to identify a time parameter, and investigates quantum effects that may prevent classical singularities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of Schutz formalism to Bianchi type I cosmology, deriving a Schrödinger-like WDW equation and analyzing singularity avoidance via quantum potential.

Findings

Classical universe expands from a big-bang singularity.

Quantum wave functions are constructed explicitly.

Quantum effects suggest possible singularity avoidance.

Abstract

We study the classical and quantum cosmology of a universe in which the matter content is a perfect fluid and the background geometry is described by a Bianchi type I metric. To write the Hamiltonian of the perfect fluid we use the Schutz representation, in terms of which, after a particular gauge fixing, we are led to an identification of a clock parameter which may play the role of time for the corresponding dynamical system. In view of the classical cosmology, it is shown that the evolution of the universe represents a late time expansion coming from a big-bang singularity. We also consider the issue of quantum cosmology in the framework of the canonical Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation. It is shown that the Schutz formalism leads to the introduction of a momentum that enters linearly into Hamiltonian. This means that the WDW equation takes the form of a Schr\"{o}dinger equation for the quantum-mechanical description of the model under consideration. We find the eigenfunctions and with the use of them construct the closed form expressions for the wave functions of the universe. By means of the resulting wave function we evaluate the expectation values and investigate the possibility of the avoidance of classical singularities due to quantum effects. We also look at the problem through Bohmian approach of quantum mechanics and while recovering the quantum solutions, we deal with the reason of the singularity avoidance by introducing quantum potential.