Time asymmetries in quantum cosmology and the search for boundary conditions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation

MARIO CASTAGNINO; GABRIEL CATREN; RAFAEL FERRARO

CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM GRAVITY

IOP Publishing Ltd.

Año: 2002 vol. 19 p. 4729 - 4746

0264-9381

This paper addresses the quantization of minisuperspace cosmological models by studying a possible solution to the problem of time and time asymmetries in quantum cosmology. Since general relativity does not have a privileged time variable of Newtonian type, it is necessary, in order to have a dynamical evolution, to select a physical clock. This choice yields, in the proposed approach, to the breaking of the so-called clock-reversal invariance of the theory which is clearly distinguished from the well-known motion-reversal invariance of both classical and quantum mechanics. In light of this new perspective, the problem of imposing proper boundary conditions on the space of solutions of the Wheeler DeWitt equation is reformulated. The symmetry-breaking formalism of previous papers is analyzed and a clarification of it is proposed in order to satisfy the requirements of the new interpretation.