Quantum Gravity and the Big Bang
arXiv:astro-ph/0309478
Abstract
Quantum gravity has matured over the last decade to a theory which can tell in a precise and explicit way how cosmological singularities of general relativity are removed. A branch of the universe "before" the classical big bang is obtained which is connected to ours by quantum evolution through a region around the singularity where the classical space-time dissolves. We discuss the basic mechanism as well as applications ranging to new phenomenological scenarios of the early universe expansion, such as an inflationary period.
6 pages, invited talk at the conference "Where Cosmology and Fundamental Physics Meet" at IUFM, Marseille, June 23 - 26, 2003