Exact path integrals on half-line in quantum cosmology with a fluid clock and aspects of operator ordering ambiguity

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Hauptverfasser: Mondal, Vikramaditya, Sahota, Harkirat Singh, Lochan, Kinjalk
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Mondal, Vikramaditya
Sahota, Harkirat Singh
Lochan, Kinjalk
author_facet Mondal, Vikramaditya
Sahota, Harkirat Singh
Lochan, Kinjalk
contents We perform $\textit{exact}$ half-line path integral quantization of flat, homogeneous cosmological models containing a perfect fluid acting as an internal clock, in a $D+1$ dimensional minisuperspace setup. We also discuss certain classes of operator ordering ambiguity inherent in such quantization procedures and argue that a particular ordering prescription in the quantum theory can preserve two symmetries, namely arbitrary lapse rescalings and general covariance, which are already present at the classical level. As a result of this imposition, a large class of quantum Hamiltonians differing by operator ordering produces the same inner products between quantum states. This imposition of the two symmetries of the classical minisuperspace models leads to a unique prescription for writing the quantum Hamiltonian for minisuperspace dimension $D>2$. Interestingly, in the case of $D=1$, the lapse rescaling symmetry is lost in the quantum theory, leading to an essentially ambiguous description of the canonical theory. We provide general proof of this in the context of both canonical quantization and path integrals. We supply concrete examples to validate our findings further.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_11680
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exact path integrals on half-line in quantum cosmology with a fluid clock and aspects of operator ordering ambiguity
Mondal, Vikramaditya
Sahota, Harkirat Singh
Lochan, Kinjalk
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
We perform $\textit{exact}$ half-line path integral quantization of flat, homogeneous cosmological models containing a perfect fluid acting as an internal clock, in a $D+1$ dimensional minisuperspace setup. We also discuss certain classes of operator ordering ambiguity inherent in such quantization procedures and argue that a particular ordering prescription in the quantum theory can preserve two symmetries, namely arbitrary lapse rescalings and general covariance, which are already present at the classical level. As a result of this imposition, a large class of quantum Hamiltonians differing by operator ordering produces the same inner products between quantum states. This imposition of the two symmetries of the classical minisuperspace models leads to a unique prescription for writing the quantum Hamiltonian for minisuperspace dimension $D>2$. Interestingly, in the case of $D=1$, the lapse rescaling symmetry is lost in the quantum theory, leading to an essentially ambiguous description of the canonical theory. We provide general proof of this in the context of both canonical quantization and path integrals. We supply concrete examples to validate our findings further.
title Exact path integrals on half-line in quantum cosmology with a fluid clock and aspects of operator ordering ambiguity
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11680