Theory HEP Seminar

Scalar Perturbations in Loop Quantum Cosmology

Ed Wilson-Ewing

Penn State

I will present an overview of recent results in homogeneous loop quantum cosmology (LQC) and explain how effective equations can be used in order to study the quantum dynamics in LQC for semi-classical states. I will then show how it is possible to include scalar perturbations by working with a lattice LQC model and I will derive the effective equations for these perturbations in LQC. These effective equations include quantum geometry effects due to holonomy corrections and hold at all curvature scales so long as the wavelengths of the inhomogeneous modes of interest remain larger than the Planck length.