Geometric perspective on singularity resolution and uniqueness in loop quantum cosmology

We reexamine the issue of singularity resolution in homogeneous loop quantum cosmology from the perspective of geometrical entities such as expansion rate and the shear scalar. These quantities are very reliable measures of the properties of spacetime and can be defined not only at the classical and effective level, but also at an operator level in the quantum theory. From their behavior in the effective constraint surface and in the effective loop quantum spacetime, we show that one can severely restrict the ambiguities in regularization of the quantum constraint and rule out unphysical choices. We analyze this in the flat isotropic model and the Bianchi-I spacetimes. In the former case we show that the expansion rate is absolutely bounded only for the so-called improved quantization, a result which synergizes with uniqueness of this quantization as proved earlier. Surprisingly, for the Bianchi-I spacetime, we show that out of the available choices, the expansion rate and shear are bounded for only one regularization of the quantum constraint. It turns out that only for this choice, the theory exhibits quantum gravity corrections at a unique scale, and is physically viable. © 2009 The American Physical Society