Quantum gravitational contributions to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy spectrum.
We derive the primordial power spectrum of density fluctuations in the framework of quantum cosmology. For this purpose we perform a Born-Oppenheimer approximation to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for an inflationary universe with a scalar field. In this way, we first recover the scale-invariant power spectrum that is found as an approximation in the simplest inflationary models. We then obtain quantum gravitational corrections to this spectrum and discuss whether they lead to measurable signatures in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy spectrum. The nonobservation so far of such corrections translates into an upper bound on the energy scale of inflation.
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany. kiefer@thp.uni-koeln.de
Claus
C
Kiefer
Manuel
M
Krämer