This article is an introductory presentation of the quantization of the half-plane based on affine coherent states (ACS). The half-plane is viewed as the phase space for the dynamics of a positive physical quantity evolving with time, and its affine symmetry is preserved due to the covariance of this type of quantization. We promote the interest of such a procedure for transforming a classical model into a quantum one, since the singularity at the origin is systematically removed, and the arbitrariness of boundary conditions can be easily overcome. We explain some important mathematical aspects of the method. Three elementary examples of applications are presented, the quantum breathing of a massive sphere, the quantum smooth bouncing of a charged sphere, and a smooth bouncing of "dust" sphere as a simple model of quantum Newtonian cosmology.

We discuss the issue of unitarity in particular quantum cosmological models with scalar field. The time variable is recovered, in this context, by using the Schutz's formalism for a radiative fluid. Two cases are considered: a phantom scalar field and an ordinary scalar field. For the first case, it is shown that the evolution is unitary provided a convenient factor ordering and inner product measure are chosen; the same happens for the ordinary scalar field, except for some special cases for which the Hamiltonian is not self-adjoint but admits a self-adjoint extension. In all cases, even for those cases not exhibiting unitary evolution, the formal computation of the expectation value of the scale factor indicates a non-singular bounce. The importance of the unitary evolution in quantum cosmology is briefly discussed. *

In this paper, the problem of the self-adjointness for the case of a quantum minisuperspace Hamiltonian retrieved from a Brans-Dicke (BD) action is investigated. Our matter content is presented in terms of a perfect fluid, onto which the Schutz's formalism will be applied. We use the von Neumann theorem and the similarity with the Laplacian operator in one of the variables to determine the cases where the Hamiltonian is self-adjoint and if it admits self-adjoint extensions. For the latter, we study which extension is physically more suitable.

In this work, we present a complete analysis of the quantisation of the classical Brans-Dicke Theory using the method of affine quantisation in the Hamiltonian description of the theory. The affine quantisation method is based on the symmetry of the phase-space of the system, in this case the (positive) half-plane, which is identified with the affine group. We consider a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetime, and since the scale factor is always positive, the affine method seems to be more suited than the canonical quantisation for our Quantum Cosmology. We find the wave function of the Brans-Dicke universe, and its energy spectrum. A smooth bounce is expected at the semi-classical level in the quantum phase-space portrait. We also address the problem of equivalence between the Jordan and Einstein frames.