Instability of an emergent universe

Abstract

Oscillating solutions to the effective equations of Loop Quantum Cosmology have been suggested for the role of an `eternal seed', providing a possible starting point for the emergent universe scenario. We investigate the stability of a particular model, sourced by a homogeneous massless scalar field and a negative cosmological constant, with respect to small perturbations and to quantum collapse. We find that the model has perturbatively stable and unstable solutions, with both types of solutions occupying significant regions of the parameter space. All solutions are unstable with respect to collapse by quantum tunneling to zero size. We discuss the possibility that the state resulting from the collapse is non-singular, so it may tunnel back to the oscillating regime. We argue that the universe is then likely to evolve to states of very large size with large particle occupation numbers.

arXiv comment18 pages, 3 figures; v2 reference added

References in corpus (15)

• Loop Quantum Cosmology: A Status Report
• Quantum Nature of the Big Bang
• Inflationary spacetimes are not past-complete
• The Emergent Universe: inflationary cosmology with no singularity
• Robustness of key features of loop quantum cosmology
• The Emergent Universe: An Explicit Construction
• The pre-inflationary dynamics of loop quantum cosmology: Confronting quantum gravity with observations
• Bouncing Braneworlds
• An emergent universe from a loop
• Numerical simulations of a loop quantum cosmos: robustness of the quantum bounce and the validity of effective dynamics
• Path Integrals and the WKB approximation in Loop Quantum Cosmology
• Exact solutions for Big Bounce in loop quantum cosmology
• Collapse of simple harmonic universe
• Correspondence between Loop-inspired and Braneworld Cosmology
• Dynamical eigenfunctions and critical density in loop quantum cosmology

Cited by in corpus (20)

• A $\Lambda$CDM bounce scenario
• Emergent Cosmology, Inflation and Dark Energy
• Emergent Cosmology Revisited
• Emergent universe in theories with natural UV cutoffs
• Current observations with a decaying cosmological constant allow for chaotic cyclic cosmology
• Past incompleteness of a bouncing multiverse
• Inter-universal entanglement in a cyclic multiverse
• Varying constants quantum cosmology
• Exploring eternal stability with the simple harmonic universe
• Stablizing oscillating universes against quantum decay
• Cyclic multiverses
• Quantum instability of an oscillating universe
• Emergent Universe by Tunneling in a Jordan-Brans-Dicke Theory
• Tunneling wavefunction proposal with loop quantum geometry effects
• Classically and Quantum stable Emergent Universe from Conservation Laws
• Tunneling decay rate in quantum cosmology
• Entanglement entropy at critical points of classical evolution in oscillatory and exotic singularity multiverse models
• Tunneling dynamics in cosmological bounce models
• Quantum gravitational non-singular tunneling wavefunction proposal
• Tunneling dynamics of an oscillating universe model