Inflationary Cosmology and Quantization Ambiguities in Semi-Classical Loop Quantum Gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantization ambiguities in loop quantum gravity influence the likelihood and conditions for slow-roll inflation, finding that certain procedures favor inflation and that the framework is generally robust to these ambiguities.

Contribution

It analyzes the impact of quantization ambiguities on inflationary dynamics in loop quantum cosmology, highlighting procedures that promote inflation.

Findings

Some quantization methods favor slow-roll inflation.

Loop quantum cosmology is robust to quantization ambiguities.

Range of initial conditions for inflation is extended.

Abstract

In loop quantum gravity, modifications to the geometrical density cause a self-interacting scalar field to accelerate away from a minimum of its potential. In principle, this mechanism can generate the conditions that subsequently lead to slow-roll inflation. The consequences for this mechanism of various quantization ambiguities arising within loop quantum cosmology are considered. For the case of a quadratic potential, it is found that some quantization procedures are more likely to generate a phase of slow--roll inflation. In general, however, loop quantum cosmology is robust to ambiguities in the quantization and extends the range of initial conditions for inflation.