Equivalence of Jordan and Einstein frames at the quantum level

Abstract

It is shown that the Jordan frame and its conformally transformed version, the Einstein frame of nonminimally coupled theories of gravity, are actually equivalent at the quantum level. The example of the theory taken up is the Brans-Dicke theory, and the wave packet calculations are done for a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological model in the purest form of the theory, i.e., in the absence of any additional matter sector. The calculations are clean and exact, and the result obtained are unambiguous.