Decomposition and unitarity in quantum cosmology

Abstract

Considering quantum cosmological minisuperspace models with positive potential, we present evidence that (i) despite common belief there are perspectives for defining a unique, naturally preferred decomposition of the space H of wave functions into two subspaces H^\pm that generalizes the concept of positive and negative frequency, and that (ii) an underlying unitary evolution within these two subspaces exists and may be described in analogy to the representation of a geometric object in local coordinates: it is associated with the choice of a congruence of classical trajectories endowed with a suitable weight (such a setting is called WKB-branch). The transformation properties of various quantities under a variation of the WKB-branch provide the tool for defining the decomposition. The construction leads to formal series whose actual convergence seems to require additional conditions on the model (related to global geometric issues and possibly to analyticity). It is speculated that this approach might relate to the refined algebraic quantization program.