Heidelberg 2007 – scientific programme
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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie
GR 304: Quantengravitation
GR 304.1: Talk
Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 17:15–17:30, KIP Kl. HS
Quantum Cosmological models with Big Brake singularity — •Barbara Sandhoefer1 and Alexander Kamenshchik2 — 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str.77, 50937 Köln, Germany — 2Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, Via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Itlay
We study the behavior of quantum cosmological models with singularities at large scale factor. Here, we focus on a cosmological model which, on the classical level, exhibits a new type of singularity, a so-called Big Brake singularity. Upon approaching this singularity, the scale factor freezes at large value, whereas its second derivative becomes infinitely negative. The Big Brake singularity thus constitutes an example of a weak cosmological singularity. We calculate the classical trajectories in configuration space and give solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in quantum cosmology. All solutions vanish at the singularity. Thus, this weak singularity is avoided upon quantization.