Silvia Pla Garcia: Can quantum tunnelling induce a cosmic bounce?

Can quantum tunnelling induce a cosmic bounce?
If we imagine rewinding the universe to early times, the scale factor shrinks and the existence of a finite spatial volume may play a role in quantum tunnelling effects in a closed universe. In this talk, I will present a novel mechanism to induce a cosmological bounce that is purely generated by quantum fluctuations without the need for exotic matter or modified gravity. The quantum-induced bounce emerges when we allow a scalar field to tunnel between two degenerate minima. I will also explain how the picture can change in the presence of anisotropies, identifying a criterium for a successful bounce in terms of the size of the closed universe and the properties of the quantum field.
This is the third seminar in the Tunneling in Quantum Field Theory series, given by Silvia Pla Garcia from King's College London.