1994/11/16 by Esteban Calzetta, Juan Jose Gonzalez, Juan José Gonzalez · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Classical mechanics #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Limit (mathematics) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum cosmology #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Semiclassical physics #Theoretical physics #WKB approximation #Wave function #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.51.6821
published as Phys.Rev. D51 (1995) 6821-6828 · 14 pages in LaTex (RevTex), 6 figures
arxiv created 1994/11/16 · openalex publication_date 1995/06/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In this paper we present a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological model conformally coupled to a masive scalar field where the WKB approximation fails to reproduce the exact solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for large universes. The breakdown of the WKB approximation follows the same pattern as in semiclassical physics of chaotic systems, and it is associated with the development of small scale structure in the wave function. This result puts in doubt the ``WKB interpretation'' of quantum cosmology.