arXiv subjects

Bao-Fei Li

Publications and source records attributed to Bao-Fei Li.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The Dynamics of Reheating in Loop Quantum Cosmology

In loop quantum cosmology (LQC), the initial singularity is replaced by a quantum bounce, leading to a universal post-bounce evolution characterized by three distinct epochs: bouncing, transition, and slow-roll inflation, before the hot big-bang universe starts. While the generic nature of inflation in LQC is well-established, the subsequent reheating phase-the process that thermalizes the universe and marks the beginning of the hot big bang has remained unexplored in this quantum gravitational framework. This paper presents the first comprehensive integration of the (generalized) reheating mechanism into the LQC paradigm. Using the Power Law Plateau potential and comparing predictions with the latest Planck 2018 and ACT 2025 data, we demonstrate that the inclusion of a reheating phase with a generic equation of state is fully consistent with the cosmological constraints. In addition, using the observational data for the amplitude and spectral index of the scalar perturbations and the tensor-to-scalar ratio, we also constrain the total number of e-folds from the bounce to the present day and find a lower bound, which is less constrained than that obtained previously from the fitting of the high-$l$ CMB temperature power spectrum (TT), the polarization data (TT, TE, EE) and the low-$l$ polarization data (lowP).

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

The primordial angular power spectrum from the alternative mass function in loop quantum cosmology

We investigate the cosmological impacts of the alternative effective mass function of the modified Mukhanov-Sasaki equation in loop quantum cosmology, which is obtained from the polymerization of the classical mass function derived in the comoving gauge. This alternative effective mass function is distinct from those in the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches and is able to generate a new structure in the primordial power spectrum. After taking the Starobinsky potential and employing a particular polymerization ansatz for the inverse Hubble rate, the effective mass function is characterized by a free parameter $ξ$. When $ξ\ge 0.1$, there appears a wave-packet structure in the region preceding the almost scale invariant regime of the power spectrum and both the location and the height of the wave packet are affected by the choice of $ξ$. For the angular power spectrum, we find $ξ=0.2$ provides the best-fit curve to the result from the $Λ$CDM model. Our study presents a concrete example in which the fine structure of the primordial power spectrum sensitively relies on the parameters in the polymerization ansatz.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Constraining regularization ambiguities in Loop Quantum Cosmology via CMB

In order to investigate the potential observational signals of different regularization ambiguities in loop quantum cosmological models, we systematically compute and compare the primordial scalar power spectra and the resulting angular power spectra in the standard loop quantum cosmology (LQC) and its Thiemann regularized versions -- modified LQC-I/II (mLQC-I/II), using both the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches. All three loop quantum cosmological models yield a non-singular bounce with a post-bounce physics that converges rapidly in a few Planck seconds. Using Starobinsky potential and the initial conditions for the background dynamics chosen to yield the same inflationary e-foldings, which are fixed to be $65$ in all three LQC models, we require that all three models result in the same scale-invariant regime for the primordial power spectrum with a relative difference of less than one percent. This permits us to explore the differences resulting from the deep Planck regime in the angular power spectrum. For the adiabatic states, our results demonstrate that the angular power spectrum predicted by the hybrid approach has a smaller deviation from the angular power spectrum predicted by the standard $Λ$CDM cosmological model at large angles in comparison with the dressed metric approach for all three models. The angular power spectrum predicted by mLQC-I in both the hybrid and the dressed metric approaches shows the smallest deviation from the one predicted by the standard $Λ$CDM cosmological model at large angular scales, except for the case of fourth order adiabatic initial states in the hybrid approach. On the contrary, mLQC-II results in the largest deviations for the amplitude of the angular power spectrum at large angles and is most disfavored.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Electrodynamics with violations of Lorentz and U(1) gauge symmetries and their Hamiltonian structure

This article aims to study the Lorentz/U(1) gauge symmetry-breaking electrodynamics in the framework of the Standard-Model Extension and analyze the Hamiltonian structure for the theory with a specific dimension $d\leq 4$ of Lorentz breaking operators. For this purpose, we consider a general quadratic action of the modified electrodynamics with Lorentz/gauge-breaking operators and calculate the number of independent components of the operators at different dimensions in gauge invariance and breaking. With this general action, we then analyze how the Lorentz/gauge symmetry-breaking can change the Hamiltonian structure of the theories by considering Lorentz/gauge-breaking operators with dimension $d\leq 4$ as examples. We show that the Lorentz-breaking operators with gauge invariance do not change the classes of the constraints of the theory and the number of the physical degrees of freedom of the standard Maxwell's electrodynamics. When the U(1) gauge symmetry-breaking operators are present, the theories in general lack first-class constraint and have one additional physical degree of freedom, compared to the standard Maxwell's electrodynamics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Alternative effective mass functions in the modified Mukhanov-Sasaki equation of loop quantum cosmology

Modifications to the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) have been phenomenologically explored using polymerization of the connection and related variables in the classical expressions in order to capture the quantum gravity effects in cosmological perturbations which replace the classical big bang by a big bounce. Examples of this strategy include the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches whose inter-relationship at an effective level was demonstrated by the authors recently. In this manuscript, we propose a new family of the effective mass functions in the modified Mukhanov-Sasaki equation of LQC by investigating the polymerization of a particular form of the classical mass function in terms of variable $z_s$($=a\dot ϕ/H$) which relates the Mukhanov-Sasaki variable with the comoving curvature perturbation. Using a generalized ansatz motivated by quantum gravity effects in the background dynamics we find alternative effective mass functions which are distinct from those used in the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches with differences originating from the non-commutativity of the evaluation of the Poisson brackets and the polymerization procedures. The new effective mass functions acquire four correction terms in the effective potential whose exact forms are closely tied up with the ansatz used for polymerizing the inverse Hubble rate. In contrast to earlier works, one of these correction terms can in principle produce sizable effects even when the bounce is kinetic dominated. Our investigation opens a new window to explore the phenomenological implications of a large family of effective mass functions in LQC which can potentially lead to significant departures from the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches in the bounce regime.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Uniform Asymptotic Approximation Method with Pöschl-Teller Potential

In this paper, we study analytical approximate solutions of the second-order homogeneous differential equations with the existence of only two turning points (but without poles), by using the uniform asymptotic approximation (UAA) method. To be more concrete, we consider the Pöschl-Teller (PT) potential, for which analytical solutions are known. Depending on the values of the parameters involved in the PT potential, we find that the upper bounds of the errors of the approximate solutions in general are $\lesssim 0.15\% \sim 10\% $, to the first-order approximation of the UAA method. The approximations can be easily extended to high-order, with which the errors are expected to be much smaller. Such obtained analytical solutions can be used to study cosmological perturbations in the framework of quantum cosmology, as well as quasi-normal modes of black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Loop Quantum Cosmology: Physics of Singularity Resolution and its Implications

The occurrence of singularities where spacetime curvature becomes infinite and geodesic evolution breaks down are inevitable events in classical general relativity (GR) unless one chooses an exotic matter violating weak energy condition. These singularities show up in various physical processes, such as the gravitational collapse, the birth of the universe in the standard cosmology as well as the classical solutions of the black hole spacetimes. In the last two decades, a rigorous understanding of the dynamics of quantum spacetime and the way it resolves singularities has been achieved in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) which applies the concepts and techniques of loop quantum gravity to the symmetry reduced cosmological spacetimes. Due to the fundamental discreteness of quantum geometry derived from the quantum theory, the big bang singularity has been robustly shown to be replaced by a big bounce. Strong curvature singularities intrinsic in the classical cosmology are generically resolved for a variety of cosmological spacetimes including anisotropic models and polarized Gowdy models. Using effective spacetime description the LQC universe also provides an ultra-violet complete description of the classical inflationary scenario as well as its alternatives such as the ekpyrotic and matter bounce scenarios. In this chapter we provide a summary of singularity resolution and its physical implications for various isotropic and anisotropic cosmological spacetimes in LQC and analyze robustness of results through variant models originating from different quantization prescriptions.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Spherical symmetric gravitational collapse of a dust cloud: polymerized dynamics in reduced phase space

Based on the effective dynamics in the $\bar μ$ scheme of the spherical symmetry reduced model in the reduced phase space formulation of loop quantum gravity (LQG), we investigate the gravitational collapse of a homogeneous dust cloud, with Gaussian dust serving as both the reference field and the source of the gravitational collapse. The effective dynamics from the considered model for a homogeneous dust cloud reduces precisely to the effective dynamics of loop quantum cosmology (LQC) with extrinsic curvature based K-quantization, indicating that the LQC effective dynamics lives as a subsector of the model presented here. In both the marginally bound and the bound cases of the collapse in effective dynamics, the singularity is resolved and replaced by a bounce. Though quantum geometric modification from spatial curvature is not directly included in the K-quantization it does affect the qualitative dynamics of the collapsing dust cloud in the sense that on the one hand for the marginally bound case, the dust cloud bounces once at fixed maximum energy density and on the other hand for the bound case, the dust cloud undergoes infinite cycles of contraction and expansion at energy densities dependent on the dust mass. Finally, the mass threshold for the formation of a trapped surface in each case is found and the matching conditions between the interior collapsing spacetime and an effective exterior static solution are discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

On a close relationship between the dressed metric and the hybrid approach to perturbations in effective loop quantum cosmology

The dressed metric and the hybrid approach to perturbations are the two main approaches to capture the effects of quantum geometry in the primordial power spectrum in loop quantum cosmology. Both consider Fock quantized perturbations over a loop quantized background and result in very similar predictions except for the modes which exit the horizon in the effective spacetime in the Planck regime. Understanding precise relationship between both approaches has so far remained obscured due to differences in construction and technical assumptions. We explore this issue at the classical and effective spacetime level for linear perturbations, ignoring backreaction, which is the level at which practical computations of the power spectrum in both of the approaches have so far been performed. We first show that at the classical level both the approaches lead to the same Hamiltonian up to the second order in perturbations and result in the same classical mass functions in the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation on the physical solutions. At the effective spacetime level, the difference in phenomenological predictions between the two approaches in the Planck regime can be traced to whether one uses the Mukhanov-Sasaki variable $Q_{\vec k}$ (the dressed metric approach) or its rescaled version $ν_{\vec k}=aQ_{\vec k}$ (the hybrid approach) to write the Hamiltonian of the perturbations, and associated polymerization ambiguities. It turns out that if in the dressed metric approach one chooses to work with $ν_{\vec{k}}$, the effective mass function can be written exactly as in the hybrid approach, thus leading to identical phenomenological predictions in all regimes. Our results explicitly show that the dressed metric and the hybrid approaches for linear perturbations, at a practical computational level, can be seen as two sides of the same coin.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Loop quantum cosmology and its gauge-covariant avatar: a weak curvature relationship

We explore the relationship between the effective dynamics in standard loop quantum cosmology (LQC) based on holonomies and triads obtained from gauge-fixing fluxes, and a modification of LQC based on holonomies and gauge-covariant fluxes (referred to as gLQC). Both the models yield singularity resolution via a bounce because of non-perturbative quantum geometric effects resulting in a maximum for energy density. In LQC, the bounce is extremely well captured by a $ρ^2$ term in energy density with a negative sign which emerges as a non-perturbative modification to the classical Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations. But, details of such modifications in gLQC have remained hidden due to an arduous nature of gauge-covariant flux modifications which do not allow writing above equations in a closed form. To extract these modifications we explore the large volume, weak curvature limit for matter with a fixed equation of state and obtain higher order corrections to the classical theory. We find that in the weak curvature limit of gLQC, in the post-bounce branch, the first order correction beyond classical theory fully recovers the form of modified Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations of LQC. In contrast, due to an asymmetric bounce in gLQC, the weak curvature limit of the pre-bounce branch exhibits a novel structure with a $ρ^{3/2}$ term as a first order correction beyond classical theory while the $ρ^2$ term appears as a second order correction. Our work shows that gLQC has a far richer structure which includes the form of dynamical equations with non-perturbative modifications in LQC in its weak curvature limit. This indicates that more general loop quantizations of cosmological sectors can reveal LQC at some truncation, and possibly there exist a tower of potentially interesting higher order modifications from quantum geometry which are hidden in the setting of LQC.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

On consistent gauge fixing conditions in polymerized gravitational systems

For classical gravitational systems the lapse function and the shift vector are usually determined by imposing appropriate gauge fixing conditions and then demanding their preservation with respect to the dynamics generated by a canonical Hamiltonian. Effective descriptions encoding quantum geometric effects motivated by loop quantum gravity for symmetry reduced models are often captured by polymerization of connection (or related) variables in gauge fixing conditions as well as constraints. Usually, one chooses the same form of polymerization in both cases. A pertinent question is if the dynamical stability of the effective gauge fixing conditions under the effective dynamics generated by the polymerized canonical Hamiltonian is provided by the lapse function and the shift vector obtained from the polymerization of their classical counterparts. If this is the case, then we say that gauge fixing and polymerization commute. In this manuscript we investigate these issues and obtain consistency conditions for the commutativity of gauge fixing and polymerization. Our analysis shows that such a commutativity occurs in rather special situations and reveals pitfalls in making seemingly well motivated choices which turn out to be inconsistent with the effective dynamics. We illustrate these findings via examples of symmetry reduced models in the loop quantization of the Schwarzschild interior and Lema\^ıtre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) spacetimes and report the non-commutativity of gauge fixing and polymerization, and inherent limitations of some choices made in the literature with a consistent effective dynamics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Does loop quantum $μ_o$ scheme permit a black hole formation?

We explore the way different loop quantization prescriptions affect the formation of trapped surfaces in the gravitational collapse of a homogeneous dust cloud, with a particular emphasis on the so called $μ_o$ scheme in which loop quantum cosmology was initially formulated. Its undesirable features in cosmological models led to the so-called improved dynamics or the $\bar μ$ scheme. While the jury is still out on the right scheme for black hole spacetimes, we show that as far as the black hole formation is concerned the $μ_o$ scheme has another, so far unknown, serious problem. We find that in the $μ_o$ scheme no trapped surfaces would form for a non-singular collapse of a homogeneous dust cloud in the marginally bound case unless the minimum non-zero area of the loops over which holonomies are computed or the Barbero-Immirzi parameter decreases almost four times from its standard value. It turns out that the trapped surfaces in the $μ_o$ scheme for the marginally bound case are also forbidden for any arbitrary matter content as long as the collapsing interior is isometric to a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetime. We find that in contrast to the situation in the $μ_o$ scheme, black holes can form in the $\bar μ$ scheme, and also other lattice refinements with a mass gap determined by quantum geometry.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Quantum gravity might restrict a cyclic evolution

It is generally expected that in a non-singular cosmological model a cyclic evolution is straightforward to obtain on introduction of a suitable choice of a scalar field with a negative potential or a negative cosmological constant which causes a recollapse at some time in the evolution. We present a counter example to this conventional wisdom. Working in the realm of loop cosmological models with non-perturbative quantum gravity modifications we show that a modified version of standard loop quantum cosmology based on Thiemann's regularization of the Hamiltonian constraint while generically non-singular does not allow a cyclic evolution unless some highly restrictive conditions hold. Irrespective of the energy density of other matter fields, a recollapse and hence a cyclic evolution is only possible if one chooses an almost Planck sized negative potential of the scalar field or a negative cosmological constant. Further, cycles when present do not occur in the classical regime. Surprisingly, a necessary condition for a cyclic evolution, not singularity resolution, turns out to be a violation of the weak energy condition. These results are in a striking contrast to standard loop quantum cosmology where obtaining a recollapse at large volumes and a cyclic evolution is straightforward, and, there is no violation of weak energy condition. On one hand our work shows that some quantum cosmological models even though non-singular and bouncing are incompatible with a cyclic evolution, and on the other hand demonstrates that differences in various quantization prescriptions in loop cosmology need not be faint and buried in the pre-bounce regime, but can be striking and profound even in the post-bounce regime.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Non-singular quantum gravitational dynamics of an LTB dust shell model: the role of quantization prescriptions

We study some consequences of the loop quantization of the outermost dust shell in the Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi spacetime with a homogeneous dust density using different quantization strategies motivated by loop quantum gravity. Prior work has dealt with loop quantizing this model by employing holonomies and the triads, following the procedure in standard loop quantum cosmology. In this work we compare this quantization with the one in which holonomies and gauge-covariant fluxes are used. While both of the quantization schemes resolve the central singularity, they lead to different mass gaps at which a trapped surface forms. This trapped surface which is matched to an exterior generalized Vaidya spacetime disappears when the density of the dust shell is in the Planck regime. We find that the quantization based on holonomies and gauge-covariant fluxes generically results in an asymmetric evolution of the dust shell in which the effective mass associated with the white hole as seen by an external observer is $2/π$ of the one for the black hole. This effective difference in masses results from difference in the classical limits in pre- and post-bounce regimes in the two quantizations. This distinctive feature rules out formation of any black hole-white hole twin in presence of gauge-covariant flux modifications which is in contrast to the quantization using holonomies and triads where the gravitational collapse always leads to a black hole-white hole twins. In another striking difference, for the quantization based on holonomies and gauge-covariant fluxes there can be situations in which during a non-singular collapse only a black hole forms without a white hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Phenomenological implications of modified loop cosmologies: an overview

In this paper, we first provide a brief review of the effective dynamics of two recently well-studied models of modified loop quantum cosmologies (mLQCs), which arise from different regularizations of the Hamiltonian constraint and show the robustness of a generic resolution of the big bang singularity, replaced by a quantum bounce due to non-perturbative Planck scale effects. As in loop quantum cosmology (LQC), in these modified models the slow-roll inflation happens generically. We consider the cosmological perturbations following the dressed and hybrid approaches and clarify some subtle issues regarding the ambiguity of the extension of the effective potential of the scalar perturbations across the quantum bounce, and the choice of initial conditions. Both of the modified regularizations yield primordial power spectra that are consistent with current observations for the Starobinsky potential within the framework of either the dressed or the hybrid approach. But differences in primordial power spectra are identified among the mLQCs and LQC. In addition, for mLQC-I, striking differences arise between the dressed and hybrid approaches in the infrared and oscillatory regimes. While the differences between the two modified models can be attributed to differences in the Planck scale physics, the permissible choices of the initial conditions and the differences between the two perturbation approaches have been reported for the first time. All these differences, due to either the different regularizations or the different perturbation approaches in principle can be observed in terms of non-Gaussianities.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Relating dust reference models to conventional systems in manifestly gauge invariant perturbation theory

Models with dust reference fields in relational formalism have proved useful in understanding the construction of gauge-invariant perturbation theory to arbitrary orders in the canonical framework. These reference fields modify the dynamical equations for perturbation equations. However, important questions remain open on the relation with conventional perturbation theories of inflaton coupled to gravity and of multi-fluid systems, and on understanding modifications in terms of physical degrees of freedom. These gaps are filled in this manuscript for Brown-Kuchař and Gaussian dust models, both of which involve three scalar physical degrees of freedom. We establish a relationship of these models with conventional inflationary and multi-fluid system of inflation and ordinary dust by introducing a set of gauge invariant variables on the reduced phase space of the dust reference models. We find the modifications due to dust clocks to Bardeen equation in the longitudinal gauge and Mukhanov-Sasaki equation in the spatially-flat gauge, in terms of physical degrees of freedom. This results in a closed system of equations for all the degrees of freedom needed to explore the evolution of the scalar perturbations. Our analysis shows for the first time that even for two-fluid systems, there is a natural choice of the set of gauge invariant variables for each chosen gauge which not only offers a direct physical interpretation but also results in simplifications to the dynamical equations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Primordial power spectrum from a matter-Ekpyrotic bounce scenario in loop quantum cosmology

A union of matter bounce and Ekpyrotic scenarios is often studied in an attempt to combine the most promising features of these two models. Since non-perturbative quantum geometric effects in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) result in natural bouncing scenarios without any violation of energy conditions or fine tuning, an investigation of matter-Ekpyrotic bounce scenario is interesting to explore in this quantum gravitational setting. In this work, we explore this unified phenomenological model for a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe in LQC filled with dust and a scalar field in an Ekpyrotic scenario like negative potential. Background dynamics and the power spectrum of the comoving curvature perturbations are numerically analyzed with various initial conditions and a suitable choice of the initial states. By varying the initial conditions we consider different cases of dust and Ekpyrotic field domination in the contracting phase. We use the dressed metric approach to numerically compute the primordial power spectrum of the comoving curvature perturbations which turns out to be almost scale invariant for the modes which exit the horizon in the matter-dominated phase. But, in contrast with a constant magnitude power spectrum obtained under approximation of a constant Ekpyrotic equation of state using deformed algebra approach in an earlier work, we find that the magnitude of power spectrum changes during evolution. Our analysis shows that the bouncing regime only leaves imprints on the modes outside the scale-invariant regime. However, an analysis of the spectral index shows inconsistency with the observational data, thus making further improvements in such a model necessary.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Primordial scalar power spectrum from the hybrid approach in loop cosmologies

We compare the primordial scalar power spectra in the loop cosmological models using the effective dynamics of the hybrid approach to cosmological perturbations in which the background is loop quantized but the perturbations are Fock quantized. The three loop cosmological models under consideration are the standard LQC, the modified LQC-I (mLQC-I) and the modified LQC-II (mLQC-II) in the spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe with a Starobinsky potential. These models arise from different regularizations of the classical Hamiltonian constraint in the symmetry reduced spacetimes and aim to capture certain features of quantization in loop quantum gravity. When applying the techniques in the hybrid approach to mLQC-I/II, we find the effective Mukhanov-Sasaki equations take the same form as in LQC. The difference among the three models is encoded in the unique expressions of the effective masses in each model. We find that the relative difference in the amplitude of power spectrum between LQC and mLQC-II is approximately $50\%$ in the infrared and the oscillatory regimes, whereas this difference can be as large as $100\%$ between mLQC-I and LQC/mLQC-II. Interestingly, in the infrared and the oscillatory regimes of mLQC-I, we obtain a suppressed power spectrum from the hybrid approach which is far below the Planck scale. This result is in a striking contrast to the one obtained from dressed metric approach to perturbations where the corresponding amplitude in this regime is extremely large. Our analysis shows that while the phenomenological predictions are in agreement between two approaches for LQC and mLQC-II, for mLQC-I the differences between dressed and hybrid approaches can be quite significant. Our result provides the first robust evidence of difference in predictions between dressed and hybrid approaches due to respective underlying constructions.

gr-qc↗