One-loop contribution to the matter-driven expansion of the Universe

Abstract

Standard perturbative quantum gravity formalism is applied to compute the lowest order corrections to the spatially flat cosmological FLRW solution governed by ordinary matter. The presented approach is analogous to the one used to compute quantum corrections to the Coulomb potential in electrodynamics, or to the approach applied in computation of quantum corrections to the Schwarzschild solution in gravity. In this framework, it is shown that the corrections to the classical metric coming from the one-loop graviton vacuum polarization (self-energy) have (UV cutoff dependent) repulsive properties, which could be not negligible in the very early Universe.