Quantum cosmology of Eddington-Born–Infeld gravity fed by a scalar field: The big rip case

Publication date: Available online 21 December 2018Source: Physics of the Dark UniverseAuthor(s): Imanol Albarran, Mariam Bouhmadi-López, Che-Yu Chen, Pisin ChenAbstractWe study the quantum avoidance of the big rip singularity in the Eddington-inspired-Born–Infeld (EiBI) phantom model. Instead of considering a simple phantom dark energy component, which is described by a perfect fluid, we consider a more fundamental degree of freedom corresponding to a phantom scalar field with its corresponding potential, which would lead the classical universe to a big rip singularity. We apply a quantum geometrodynamical approach by performing an appropriate Hamiltonian study including an analysis of the constraints of the system. We then derive the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation and see whether the solutions to the WDW equation satisfy the DeWitt boundary condition. We find that by using a suitable Born–Oppenheimer (BO) approximation, whose validity is proven, the DeWitt condition is satisfied. Therefore, the big rip singularity is expected to be avoided in the quantum realm.

Source: Physics of the Dark Universe - December 21, 2018 Category: Physics Source Type: research