Singularity avoidance in quantum gravity
arXiv:1911.05037 · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135219
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to investigate the consequences of quantum gravity for the singularity problem. We study the higher-derivative terms that invariably appear in any quantum field theoretical model of gravity, handling them both non-perturbatively and perturbatively. In the former case, by computing the contributions of the additional degrees of freedom to a congruence of geodesics, we show that the appearance of singularities is no longer a necessity. In the latter, which corresponds to treating the quantised general relativity as an effective field theory, we generalise the Hawking-Penrose theorems to include one-loop corrections of both massless matter and graviton fluctuations.