On a novel relationship between shear and energy density at the bounce in non-singular Bianchi-I spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a universal parabolic relationship between energy density and shear at the bounce in non-singular Bianchi-I models within loop quantum cosmology, revealing insights into anisotropy and isotropization in quantum gravity regimes.

Contribution

It identifies a novel, seemingly universal parabolic relationship between energy density and shear at the bounce in effective LQC models, independent of initial conditions.

Findings

Maximum shear occurs at half the maximum energy density.

The relationship holds across various initial conditions and potentials.

Insights into anisotropy and isotropization processes in quantum cosmology.

Abstract

In classical Bianchi-I spacetimes, underlying conditions for what dictates the singularity structure - whether it is anisotropic shear or energy density, can be easily determined from the generalized Friedmann equation. However, in non-singular bouncing anisotropic models these insights are difficult to obtain in the quantum gravity regime where the singularity is resolved at a non-vanishing mean volume which can be large compared to the Planck volume, depending on the initial conditions. Such non-singular models may also lack a generalized Friedmann equation making the task even more difficult. We address this problem in an effective spacetime description of loop quantum cosmology (LQC) where energy density and anisotropic shear are universally bounded due to quantum geometry effects, but a generalized Friedmann equation has been difficult to derive due to the underlying complexity. Performing extensive numerical simulations of effective Hamiltonian dynamics, we bring to light a surprising, seemingly universal relationship between energy density and anisotropic shear at the bounce in LQC. For a variety of initial conditions for a massless scalar field, an inflationary potential, and two types of ekpyrotic potentials we find that the values of energy density and the anisotropic shear at the quantum bounce follow a novel parabolic relationship which reveals some surprising results about the anisotropic nature of the bounce, such as the maximum value of the anisotropic shear at the bounce is reached when the energy density reaches approximately half of its maximum allowed value. The relationship we find can prove very useful for developing our understanding of the degree of anisotropy of the bounce, isotropization of the post-bounce universe, and discovering the modified generalized Friedmann equation in Bianchi-I models with quantum gravity corrections.