New Hamiltonians for loop quantum cosmology with arbitrary spin representations

Abstract

In loop quantum cosmology, one has to make a choice of SU(2) irreducible representation in which to compute holonomies and regularize the curvature of the connection. The systematic choice made in the literature is to work in the fundamental representation, and very little is known about the physics associated with higher spin labels. This constitutes an ambiguity whose understanding, we believe, is fundamental for connecting loop quantum cosmology to full theories of quantum gravity like loop quantum gravity, its spin foam formulation, or cosmological group field theory. We take a step in this direction by providing here a new closed formula for the Hamiltonian of flat FLRW models regularized in a representation of arbitrary spin. This expression is furthermore polynomial in the basic variables which correspond to well-defined operators in the quantum theory, takes into account the so-called inverse-volume corrections, and treats in a unified way two different regularization schemes for the curvature. After studying the effective classical dynamics corresponding to single and multiple spin Hamiltonians, we study the behavior of the critical density when the number of representations is increased, and the stability of the difference equations in the quantum theory.