On the Appearance of Time in the Classical Limit of Quantum Gravity

Abstract

A possible solution of the problem of time in the Wheeler–DeWitt quantum geometrodynamics is that time appears within a semiclassical limit. Following this line of thinking, one can come to the Schrodinger equation for matter fields in curved spacetime with quantum-gravitational corrections. In the present paper, we study the semiclassical limit in the case of a closed isotropic model with a scalar field decomposed into modes. We analyse calculations made within frameworks of three approaches. The first approach was proposed by Kiefer and Singh. Since the Wheeler–DeWitt equation does not contain a time derivative, it is constructed by means of a special mathematical procedure, a time variable being a parameter along a classical trajectory of gravitational field. The second method was suggested in the paper of Maniccia and Montani, who introduced the Kuchař–Torre reference fluid as an origin of time. Furthermore, the third is the extended phase space approach to the quantisation of gravity. In this approach, the temporal Schrodinger equation is argued to be more fundamental than the Wheeler–DeWitt equation, and there is no problem of time. Time is introduced due to fixing a reference frame of a certain observer, who can register the macroscopic consequences of quantum gravitational phenomena in the Very Early Universe. To go to the semiclassical limit, the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for gravity is used. In each of the approaches, in the order of O(1/M), a temporal Schrödinger equation for matter fields in curved spacetime with quantum gravitational corrections is obtained. However, equations and corrections are different in various approaches, and the results depend on the additional assumptions made within the scopes of these approaches.