Chataignier, Leonardo ORCID: 0000-0001-6691-3695
(2019).
Gauge Fixing and the Semiclassical Interpretation of Quantum Cosmology.
Z. Naturfors. Sect. A-J. Phys. Sci., 74 (12).
S. 1069 - 1099.
BERLIN:
WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH.
ISSN 1865-7109
Abstract
We make a critical review of the semiclassical interpretation of quantum cosmology and emphasise that it is not necessary to consider that a concept of time emerges only when the gravitational field is (semi)classical. We show that the usual results of the semiclassical interpretation and its generalisation known as the Born-Oppenheimer approach to quantum cosmology can be obtained by gauge fixing, both at the classical and quantum levels. By gauge fixing, we mean a particular choice of the time coordinate, which determines the arbitrary Lagrange multiplier that appears in Hamilton's equations. In the quantum theory, we adopt a tentative definition of the (Klein-Gordon) inner product, which is positive definite for solutions of the quantum constraint equation found via an iterative procedure that corresponds to a weak coupling expansion in powers of the inverse Planck mass. We conclude that the wave function should be interpreted as a state vector for both gravitational and matter degrees of freedom, the dynamics of which is unitary with respect to the chosen inner product and time variable.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
Creators: |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-126079 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1515/zna-2019-0223 | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Z. Naturfors. Sect. A-J. Phys. Sci. | ||||||||
Volume: | 74 | ||||||||
Number: | 12 | ||||||||
Page Range: | S. 1069 - 1099 | ||||||||
Date: | 2019 | ||||||||
Publisher: | WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH | ||||||||
Place of Publication: | BERLIN | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1865-7109 | ||||||||
Language: | English | ||||||||
Faculty: | Unspecified | ||||||||
Divisions: | Unspecified | ||||||||
Subjects: | no entry | ||||||||
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
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Refereed: | Yes | ||||||||
URI: | http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/12607 |
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