2021/10/18 by Natalia Gorobey, Gorobey, Natalia, Alexander Lukyanenko +2
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Relativity and Gravitational Theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2110.09135
openalex publication_date 2021/10/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A version of the quantum theory of gravity based on the concept of the wave functional of the universe is proposed. To determine the physical wave functional, the quantum principle of least action is formulated as a secular equation for the corresponding action operator. Its solution, the wave functional, is an invariant of general covariant transformations of space-time. In the new formulation, the history of the evolution of the universe is described in terms of coordinate time together with arbitrary lapse and shift functions, which makes this description close to the formulation of the principle of general covariance in the classical theory of Einstein's gravity. In the new formulation of the quantum theory, an invariant parameter of the evolutionary time of the universe is defined, which is a generalization of the classical geodesic time, measured by a standard clock along time-like geodesics.