Cosmology with quantum matter and a classical gravitational field: the approach of configuration-space ensembles

Abstract

I consider the formulation of hybrid cosmological models that consists of a classical gravitational field interacting with a quantized massive scalar field in the formalism of ensembles on configuration space. This is a viable approach that provides an alternative to semiclassical gravity. I discuss a particular, highly nonclassical solution in two approximations, minisuperspace and spherically-symmetric midisuperspace. In both cases, the coupling of the quantum scalar field and classical gravitational field leads to a cosmological model which has a quantized radius of the universe.