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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Quantum cosmology and speculations about quantum effects in the very early Universe began with the work of DeWitt . Since then, many investigators have been facing the difficult task of giving a reasonable description of the Planck era. Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) models have been intensely studied, and it has been found that some of them possess wormhole quantum states. Quantum wormholes are solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation which remain regular as the three-geometry collapses to zero and are exponentially damped for large three-geometries . In quantum cosmology wormhole states are not restricted to exotic types of matter fields, and in fact they exist in models with a simple matter content, such as dust and a conformally coupled scalar field .

Recently, in collaboration with J. C. Fabris and F. G. Alvarenga, we quantized a FRW model having as matter content a perfect fluid with an arbitrary barotropic equation of state . Wave packets were constructed and the behaviour of the scale factor discussed according to the many-worlds and the Bohm-de Broglie interpretations. Since fundamental fields are believed to play an essential role in the dynamics of the early Universe, in the present paper we study the consequences of adding a conformal scalar field to the matter content. The treatment relies on Schutz’s canonical formalism , which describes a relativistic fluid interacting with the gravitational field and endows the fluid with dynamical degrees of freedom. The quantum properties of the model are investigated on the basis of the associated Wheeler-DeWitt equation. The super-Hamiltonian constraint turns out to be linear in one of the momenta, and a time variable can be naturally introduced, reducing the Wheeler-DeWitt equation to a bona fide Schrödinger equation. The presence of the conformal scalar field gives rise to significant changes in the quantum dynamics. A well-known discrete set of static wormhole wave functions exists in the case of radiation. In the case of cosmic strings a new continuous family of quantum wormhole states is found whose throat radii can be arbitrarily small or arbitrarily large. Both for cosmic strings and radiation, wave packets are obtained with the properties of evolving quantum wormholes. For a radiation fluid we manage to construct the exact propagator, which allows us to study the evolution of initial states of the Gaussian type. We show that a strong repulsive quantum force, which is inversely proportional to the cube of the scale factor, prevents the appearence of singularities. There is no particle horizon either.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 a Hamiltonian treatment is given to a FRW universe filled with a perfect fluid (with an arbitrary barotropic equation of state $`p=\alpha \rho `$) and a conformally invariant scalar field. In Section 3 the classical equations of motion are solved for some particular values of $`\alpha `$. In Section 4 the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is constructed. Static quantum wormholes are obtained in Section 5 for radiation and cosmic strings. In Section 6 dynamic wormholes are obtained for cosmic strings and radiation, in the latter case by means of the exact propagator to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. The rest of the paper deals only with radiation. The Bohm-de Broglie interpretation is employed in Section 7 to study the quantum dynamics, and the role of the quantum force to prevent singularities is highlighted. Section 8 is dedicated to final comments.

## 2 FRW Model With Perfect Fluid and Conformal Scalar Field

A homogeneous and isotropic cosmological model is characterized by the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric

$$ds^2=N(t)^2a(t)^2dt^2+a(t)^2\sigma _{ij}dx^idx^j,$$
(1)
where $`\sigma _{ij}`$ denotes the metric for a 3-space of constant curvature $`k=+1,0`$ or $`1`$, and the lapse function has been conveniently parametrized as $`N(t)a(t)`$.

In units such that $`c=16\pi G=1`$, the pure gravitational action is

$$S_g=_Md^4x\sqrt{g}R+2_Md^3x\sqrt{h}K,$$
(2)
where $`K`$ is the trace of the extrinsic curvature $`K_{ij}`$ of the boundary $`M`$ of the space-time manifold $`M`$. The matter content is a perfect fluid plus a scalar field conformally coupled to gravity. The action associated with the sources of gravity is

$$S_m=_Md^4x\sqrt{g}p\frac{1}{2}_Md^4x\sqrt{g}\left(_\mu \varphi ^\mu \varphi +\frac{1}{6}R\varphi ^2\right)\frac{1}{12}_Md^3x\sqrt{h}K\varphi ^2.$$
(3)
Schutz’s canonical formalism  makes use of a representation for the four-velocity of the fluid as $`U_\nu =\frac{1}{\mu }(ϵ,_\nu +\zeta \beta ,_\nu +\theta S,_\nu )`$, where $`ϵ,\zeta ,\beta ,\theta ,S`$ are five velocity potentials. The specific enthalpy $`\mu `$ is expressed in terms of the velocity potentials by means of the normalization condition $`U^\nu U_\nu =1`$. The potential $`S`$ is the specific entropy, and in FRW models the potentials $`\zeta `$ and $`\beta `$ are zero.

Compatibility with the homogeneous spacetime metric is guaranteed by taking the scalar field and the velocity potentials as functions of $`t`$ only. Taking $`p=\alpha \rho `$ as equation of state for the fluid, and performing an ADM reduction described in detail in , we can write the total action $`S_T=S_g+S_m`$ as

$$S_T=𝑑t(p_a\dot{a}+p_\mathrm{\Phi }\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+p_ϵ\dot{ϵ}+p_S\dot{S}N),$$
(4)
where we have used the constraint $`p_\theta =0`$ and redefined the scalar field by means of $`\mathrm{\Phi }=a\varphi `$. The super-Hamiltonian $``$ is given by

$$=\frac{p_a^2}{24}6ka^2+p_ϵ^{\alpha +1}a^{13\alpha }e^S+\frac{p_\mathrm{\Phi }^2}{24}+6k\mathrm{\Phi }^2.$$
(5)
The canonical transformation

$$T=p_Se^Sp_ϵ^{(\alpha +1)},p_T=e^Sp_ϵ^{\alpha +1},\overline{ϵ}=ϵ(\alpha +1)\frac{p_S}{p_ϵ},p_{\overline{ϵ}}=p_ϵ$$
(6)
reduces the super-Hamiltonian to

$$=\frac{p_a^2}{24}+\frac{p_\mathrm{\Phi }^2}{24}6ka^2+6k\mathrm{\Phi }^2+a^{13\alpha }p_T.$$
(7)
Since $`\overline{ϵ}`$ and $`p_{\overline{ϵ}}`$ do not appear in the super-Hamiltonian (7), they do not represent a dynamical degree of freedom and may be simply dropped from the action, which takes the reduced form

$$S=𝑑t(p_a\dot{a}+p_\mathrm{\Phi }\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+p_T\dot{T}N).$$
(8)
## 3 The Classical Equations of Motion

The variational principle $`\delta S=0`$ leads to the classical equations of motion

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\dot{a}=\frac{N}{12}p_a,\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}=\frac{N}{12}p_\mathrm{\Phi },\dot{T}=Na^{13\alpha },& & \\ & & \\ \dot{p}_a=N\left[12ka(13\alpha )a^{3\alpha }p_T\right],\dot{p}_\mathrm{\Phi }=12Nk\mathrm{\Phi },\dot{p}_T=0& & \end{array}$$
(9)
supplemented by the super-Hamiltonian constraint

$$\frac{p_a^2}{24}+\frac{p_\mathrm{\Phi }^2}{24}6ka^2+6k\mathrm{\Phi }^2+a^{13\alpha }p_T=0.$$
(10)
It follows that $`p_T=\text{constant}`$, and in the conformal-time gauge ($`N=1`$) we have

$$\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+k\mathrm{\Phi }=0,\dot{T}=a^{13\alpha },\ddot{a}=ka+\frac{13\alpha }{12}a^{3\alpha }p_T.$$
(11)
The cases $`\alpha =1`$ and $`\alpha =0`$ have been previously studied in . If $`\alpha =1/3`$, the equation of motion for the scale factor becomes identical to that satisfied by $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. If $`\alpha 1/3`$, equation (11) for the scale factor corresponds to Newton’s equation of motion for a particle of unit mass under a force whose potential is $`V(a)=ka^2/2+\mathrm{}a^{13\alpha }`$, where $`\mathrm{}=p_T/12`$ is a constant. Making use of “energy” conservation we find

$$t=\frac{da}{\sqrt{ka^2\mathrm{}a^{13\alpha }}},$$
(12)
where $``$ is an integration constant. The above integral can be expressed in terms of elementary functions in the cases of radiation $`(\alpha =1/3)`$, stiff matter ($`\alpha =1`$) and cosmic strings ($`\alpha =1/3`$). In other physically interesting cases such as dust $`(\alpha =0)`$, domain walls $`(\alpha =2/3)`$ and vacuum $`(\alpha =1)`$ the integral is given by Jacobi elliptic functions.

For future reference we solve the classical equations of motion in the radiation case ($`\alpha =1/3`$). In the conformal-time gauge $`(N=1)`$ eqs.(9) are solved by (the three lines below correspond to $`k=1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$, respectively)

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}a(\tau )=\hfill & c_1\mathrm{sinh}\tau +c_2\mathrm{cosh}\tau ,\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )=c_3\mathrm{sinh}\tau +c_4\mathrm{cosh}\tau ,\hfill & & & \\ & & & & \\ a(\tau )=\hfill & c_1\tau +c_2,\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )=c_3\tau +c_4,\hfill & & & \\ & & & & \\ a(\tau )=\hfill & c_1\mathrm{sin}\tau +c_2\mathrm{cos}\tau ,\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )=c_3\mathrm{sin}\tau +c_4\mathrm{cos}\tau ,\hfill & & & \end{array}$$
(13)
where $`c_1`$, $`c_2`$, $`c_3`$, $`c_4`$ and $`p_T`$ are integration constants. For $`k=1`$ both $`a(\tau )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )`$ are oscillating functions. The cases $`k=1`$ and $`k=0`$ correspond to an ever-expanding Universe.

## 4 Quantization

The Wheeler-DeWitt quantization scheme consists in promoting the canonical momenta to operators according to

$$p_ai\frac{}{a},p_\mathrm{\Phi }i\frac{}{\mathrm{\Phi }},p_Ti\frac{}{T},$$
(14)
and, with the corresponding super-Hamiltonian operator $`\widehat{}`$, forming the Wheeler-DeWitt equation

$$\widehat{}\mathrm{\Psi }(a,\mathrm{\Phi },T)=0,$$
(15)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }(a,\mathrm{\Phi },T)`$ is called the wave function of the Universe. In our case, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation associated with eq.(10) takes the form of the Schrödinger-like equation

$$\left(\frac{1}{24}\frac{^2}{a^2}6ka^2\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(a,\mathrm{\Phi },T)\left(\frac{1}{24}\frac{^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }^2}6k\mathrm{\Phi }^2\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(a,\mathrm{\Phi },T)=ia^{13\alpha }\frac{}{T}\mathrm{\Psi }(a,\mathrm{\Phi },T).$$
(16)
For the sake of convenience, let us perform the reparametrization

$$a=\frac{R}{\sqrt{12}},\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{\chi }{\sqrt{12}},\tau =T,$$
(17)
which casts equation (16) into the form

$$\left[\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{R^2}+\frac{k}{2}R^2\right)\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{\chi ^2}+\frac{k}{2}\chi ^2\right)\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=i\left(\frac{R}{\sqrt{12}}\right)^{13\alpha }\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )}{\tau }.$$
(18)
Eq.(18) can be written as $`i\mathrm{\Psi }/t=\widehat{H}\mathrm{\Psi }`$ with a self-adjoint Hamiltonian operator if the inner product is

$$(\mathrm{\Psi },\mathrm{\Phi })=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\chi _0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑RR^{13\alpha }\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi )^{}\mathrm{\Phi }(R,\chi ).$$
(19)
## 5 Static Quantum Wormholes

For the radiation case ($`\alpha =1/3`$) and $`k=1`$ the stationary solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (18) take the form $`\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\phi _n(R)\phi _m(\chi )e^{iE\tau }`$ where $`\phi _n`$ is the n-th eigenfunction of the harmonic oscillator and $`E=E_{nm}=nm`$, with $`n,m=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$. The wave functions $`\psi _{nm}(R,\chi )=\phi _n(R)\phi _m(\chi )`$ form a well-known set of wormhole quantum states .

We now show that static wormholes also exist for cosmic strings and $`k=1`$. With $`\alpha =1/3`$ the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (18) becomes

$$\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{R^2}+\frac{1}{2}kR^2\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{\chi ^2}+\frac{1}{2}k\chi ^2\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=i\frac{R^2}{12}\frac{}{\tau }\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau ).$$
(20)
Writing $`\mathrm{\Psi }=e^{iE\tau }\psi `$ we find

$$\frac{1}{2}\left[\frac{^2\psi }{R^2}+kR^2\psi \right]\frac{1}{2}\left[\frac{^2\psi }{\chi ^2}+k\chi ^2\psi \right]=E\frac{R^2}{12}\psi .$$
(21)
Applying the method of separation of variables with $`\psi (R,\chi )=X(R)Y(\chi )`$ we get

$$\frac{1}{2X}[X^{\prime \prime }+kR^2X]E\frac{R^2}{12}=\frac{1}{2Y}[Y^{\prime \prime }+k\chi ^2Y]=\frac{A}{2},$$
(22)
where $`A`$ is a separation constant. Thus we have the following ordinary differential equations:

$$X^{\prime \prime }+(AkR^2+E\frac{R^2}{6})X=0,$$
(23)
$$Y^{\prime \prime }+(Ak\chi ^2)Y=0.$$
(24)
With $`k=1`$ and $`A=0`$ these equations reduce to

$$X^{\prime \prime }\left(1\frac{E}{6}\right)R^2X=0,$$
(25)
$$Y^{\prime \prime }\chi ^2Y=0.$$
(26)
The general solution to these equations which is regular everywhere and exponentially damped for both large scale factor and large scalar field is

$$X(R)=R^{1/2}K_{1/4}\left(\sqrt{1E/6}R^2/2\right),$$
(27)
$$Y(\chi )=|\chi |^{1/2}K_{1/4}(\chi ^2/2),$$
(28)
where $`E<6`$ and $`K_\nu `$ is the modified Bessel function of the second kind, of order $`\nu `$.

Thus, the static wormhole wave functions in this case are

$$\psi _E(R,\chi )=N_E(|\chi |R)^{1/2}K_{1/4}(\chi ^2/2)K_{1/4}\left(\sqrt{1E/6}R^2/2\right),$$
(29)
with $`E<6`$. These wave functions are normalizable in the inner product (19). The normalization constant is found to be \[Ref., formulas 6.521(3) and 6.576(4)\]

$$N_E=\frac{2}{\pi ^{3/2}}\sqrt{1E/6}.$$
(30)
Thus, in the case of a fluid of cosmic strings there exists a continuous family of wormhole quantum states. Because the Hilbert space of states is separable, the wave functions (29) cannot be mutually ortogonal, just like the elements of the overcomplete set of coherent states of the harmonic oscillator. Indeed, we have

$$(\psi _E^{},\psi _E)=\frac{4(1E^{}/6)^{3/8}(1E/6)^{3/8}}{[(1E^{}/6)^{1/4}+(1E/6)^{1/4}][(1E^{}/6)^{1/2}+(1E/6)^{1/2}]}.$$
(31)
The expectation value of the scale factor in the state (29) is

$$R=\frac{2^{7/2}}{3\pi }\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1/4)^2}{(1E/6)^{1/4}},$$
(32)
which may be interpreted as the radius of the throat. Since $`\mathrm{}<E<6`$, static wormhole universes with arbitrarily small or arbitrarily large throat radii are allowed. From equations (14), (17) and $`\mathrm{\Psi }=e^{iE\tau }\psi `$ it follows that $`p_T=E`$. For $`E<6`$ the classical equations of motion (11) with $`\alpha =1/3`$ have no static solution for the scale factor. Thus, the quantum regime in the state (29) is such that the classical evolution of the universe is halted.

## 6 Evolving Quantum Wormholes

In the case of cosmic strings, let us consider $`E>6`$. Setting $`E=6(1+ϵ^2)`$ with $`ϵ>0`$, a solution to eq.(25) is

$$X(R)=R^{1/2}J_{1/4}\left(ϵR^2/2\right),$$
(33)
where $`J_\nu `$ is the Bessel function of the first kind, of order $`\nu `$. The stationary wave functions

$$\psi _ϵ(R,\chi )=(|\chi |R)^{1/2}K_{1/4}(\chi ^2/2)J_{1/4}\left(ϵR^2/2\right)$$
(34)
do not represent physical states because they are not normalizable in the inner product (19). Normalizable wave packets may be constructed by writing

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=_0^{\mathrm{}}C(ϵ)e^{iE\tau }\psi _ϵ(R,\chi )𝑑ϵ$$

$$=e^{6i\tau }(|\chi |R)^{1/2}K_{1/4}(\chi ^2/2)_0^{\mathrm{}}C(ϵ)e^{6i\tau ϵ^2}J_{1/4}\left(ϵR^2/2\right)𝑑ϵ.$$
(35)
The choice

$$C(ϵ)=ϵ^{5/4}e^{\gamma ϵ^2},$$
(36)
with $`\gamma `$ a positive constant, leads to \[Ref., formula 6.631(4)\]

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\frac{e^{6i\tau }}{(\gamma +6i\tau )^{5/4}}|\chi |^{1/2}K_{1/4}(\chi ^2/2)R\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{R^4}{16(\gamma +6i\tau )}\right],$$
(37)
up to a normalization factor. The expectation value of the scale factor in the state (37) is

$$R(\tau )=\frac{2^{7/4}\sqrt{\pi }}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1/4)}\left(\frac{\gamma ^2+36\tau ^2}{\gamma }\right)^{1/4}.$$
(38)
Note that the mean radius of the Universe grows without bound in spite of the fact that the spatial geometry of the Universe is closed ($`k=1`$). Taking $`\gamma `$ sufficiently small, so that the wave packet is very well localized near $`R=0`$ at $`\tau =0`$, the expectation value of the scale factor becomes as large as one pleases immediately after $`\tau =0`$. In other words, it is nearly certain that the Universe will have an enormous radius at any positive time. This was called “inflation without inflation” in .

Let us take up again the radiation case. With $`\alpha =1/3`$ we can put equation (18) in the form

$$i\frac{}{\tau }\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\widehat{H}\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )(\widehat{H}_R\widehat{H}_\chi )\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )$$
(39)
where

$$\widehat{H}_R=\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{R^2}+\frac{k}{2}R^2,\widehat{H}_\chi =\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2}{\chi ^2}+\frac{k}{2}\chi ^2.$$
(40)
The Hamiltonian operator $`\widehat{H}`$ is self-adjoint in the inner product

$$(\mathrm{\Psi },\mathrm{\Phi })=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\chi _0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑R\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi )^{}\mathrm{\Phi }(R,\chi )$$
(41)
as long as its domain is restricted to those wave functions such that $`\mathrm{\Psi }(0,\chi )=0`$ or $`\psi ^{}(0,\chi )=0`$, where the prime means partial derivative with respect to $`R`$ . Except for this domain restriction, $`\widehat{H}`$ is the difference between: Hamiltonians of two harmonic oscillators ($`k=1`$); Hamiltonians of two free particles ($`k=0`$); or Hamiltonians of two inverted oscillators ($`k=1`$).

The propagator for (39) is

$$G(\chi ,R;\chi ^{},R^{};\tau )=G_R(R;R^{};\tau )G^{}(\chi ;\chi ^{};\tau ),$$
(42)
where $`G`$ is the usual harmonic-oscillator propagator. As concerns $`G_R`$, some care must be exercised since $`R`$ takes values only on the half-line $`R0`$. For the sake of simplicity, we consider only those wave functions that satisfy the condition $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(0,\chi ,\tau )=0`$. For this boundary condition, the propagator is given by

$$G_R(R,R^{};\tau )=G(R;R^{};\tau )+G(R;R^{};\tau ),$$
(43)
where

$$G(x,x^{};\tau )=\left(\frac{\sqrt{k}}{2\pi i\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{k}\tau }\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{i\sqrt{k}}{2\mathrm{sin}\sqrt{k}\tau }\left[(x^2+x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})\mathrm{cos}\sqrt{k}\tau 2xx^{}\right]\right\}$$
(44)
is the propagator for a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator with mass $`m=1`$ and frequency $`w=\sqrt{k}`$.

The quantum dynamics of the models will be studied by following the time evolution of the initial Gaussian wave function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\chi ,R,0)=\sqrt{\frac{4\sqrt{\sigma \beta }}{\pi }}e^{\sigma R^2\beta \chi ^2},$$
(45)
where $`\sigma \text{and}\beta `$ are positive constants. Making use of

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\chi ,R,\tau )=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\chi ^{}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑R^{}G(\chi ,R;\chi ^{},R^{};\tau )\mathrm{\Psi }(\chi ^{},R^{},0),$$
(46)
the wave packet takes the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\sqrt{\frac{4\sqrt{\sigma \beta }}{\pi }}\sqrt{\frac{k}{\mathrm{cos}^2(\sqrt{k}\tau )\left[2\sigma \mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )i\sqrt{k}\right]\left[2\beta \mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )+i\sqrt{k}\right]}}$$

$$\times \mathrm{exp}\{\frac{i\sqrt{k}}{2\mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )}[1\frac{i\sqrt{k}}{\mathrm{cos}^2(\sqrt{k}\tau )\left[2\beta \mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )+i\sqrt{k}\right]}]\chi ^2$$

$$+\frac{i\sqrt{k}}{2\mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )}[1+\frac{i\sqrt{k}}{\mathrm{cos}^2(\sqrt{k}\tau )\left[2\sigma \mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{k}\tau )i\sqrt{k}\right]}]R^2\}.$$
(47)
## 7 The Bohm-de Broglie Interpretation

The Bohm-De Broglie interpretation  is an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics which allows the treatment of a unique system such as the Universe, which cannot be repeatedly prepared in the same state as required by the standard statistical interpretation. The Bohm-De Broglie interpretation starts by writing the wave function of the Universe in the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{exp}(i𝒮),$$
(48)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ and $`𝒮`$ are real functions. Then, inserting (48) into the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (16) with $`\alpha =1/3`$, there results

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{𝒮}{\tau }+\hfill & \frac{1}{2}\left[\left(\frac{𝒮}{\chi }\right)^2\left(\frac{𝒮}{R}\right)^2\right]+V+Q=0,\hfill & \\ & & \\ \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }}{\tau }+\hfill & \left[\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }}{\chi }\right)\left(\frac{𝒮}{\chi }\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }}{R}\right)\left(\frac{𝒮}{R}\right)\right]+\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }}{2}\left[\frac{^2𝒮}{\chi ^2}\frac{^2𝒮}{R^2}\right]=0,\hfill & \end{array}$$
(49)
where $`V`$ and $`Q`$ are the classical and quantum potentials, respectively:

$$V=\frac{1}{2}k\left(R^2\chi ^2\right),Q=\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Theta }}\left[\frac{^2\mathrm{\Theta }}{R^2}\frac{^2\mathrm{\Theta }}{\chi ^2}\right].$$
(50)
Let us first examine the case of vanishing spatial curvature ($`k=0`$).

### 7.1 The Flat Case

The wave packet is obtained by taking the limit as $`k0`$ of the wave function (47), and it takes the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\sqrt{4\frac{\sqrt{\sigma \beta }}{\pi }}\mathrm{\Psi }_1(R,\tau )\mathrm{\Psi }_2(\chi ,\tau )$$
(51)
where

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{\Psi }_1(R,\tau )=\hfill & \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\sigma \tau i}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\left(\frac{i}{2\tau }\frac{2\sigma \tau }{2\sigma \tau i}\right)R^2\right\},\hfill & \\ & & \\ \mathrm{\Psi }_2(\chi ,\tau )=\hfill & \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\beta \tau +i}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\left(\frac{i}{2\tau }\frac{2\beta \tau }{2\beta \tau +i}\right)\chi ^2\right\}.\hfill & \end{array}$$
(52)
The wave function (51) may be written in the form (48) with the functions $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ and $`𝒮`$ given by

$$𝒮=\frac{2\sigma ^2\tau }{1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2}R^2\frac{2\beta ^2\tau }{1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2}\chi ^2+f_0(\tau ),$$
(53)
$$\mathrm{\Theta }=g_0(\tau )\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{\sigma R^2}{1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2}\frac{\beta \chi ^2}{1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2}\right\},$$
(54)
where $`f_0`$ and $`g_0`$ are functions of $`\tau `$ alone that play no role in the subsequent discussion. From this we can find the Bohmian trajectories for the scale factor $`a(\tau )`$ and the scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau )`$, recalling that $`a`$, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, $`R`$ and $`\chi `$ are related by (17), and also that in the $`\tau `$-gauge one must take $`N=1`$ in Hamilton’s equations (9). The Bohmian trajectories are the solutions of the differential equations

$$p_R=\frac{𝒮}{R},p_\chi =\frac{𝒮}{\chi }.$$
(55)
Taking into account the previous remark on the lapse function, the classical equations of motion and the relations (17), we get

$$\dot{R}(\tau )=\frac{4\sigma ^2\tau }{1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2}R(\tau ).$$
(56)
An immediate integration yields

$$R(\tau )=A_0\sqrt{1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2},$$
(57)
where $`A_0`$ is a positive constant of integration. There is no singularity since the Bohmian trajectories $`R(\tau )`$ never reach $`R=0`$.

In a similar fashion, we find for the scalar field

$$\dot{\chi }(\tau )=\frac{4\beta ^2\tau }{1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2}\chi (\tau ),$$
(58)
whose solution is

$$\chi (\tau )=B_0\sqrt{1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2},$$
(59)
where $`B_0`$ is a real constant of integration. The probability distribution of $`\chi `$ derived from (54) is an even function of $`\chi `$. Thus, averaging over $`B_0`$ we obtain the expectation value $`\chi =0`$, as it should.

The quantum potential $`Q`$ is found by inserting (54) into (50):

$$Q(R,\chi ,\tau )=\frac{\sigma }{1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2}\frac{\beta }{1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2}\frac{2\sigma ^2R^2}{\left(1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2\right)^2}+\frac{2\beta ^2\chi ^2}{\left(1+4\beta ^2\tau ^2\right)^2}.$$
(60)
The quantum force associated with the time evolution of the scale factor is

$$F_R^{(Q)}=\frac{Q}{R}=\frac{4\sigma ^2R}{\left(1+4\sigma ^2\tau ^2\right)^2}.$$
(61)
With the help of the trajectory (57), the quantum force $`F_R`$ can be expressed as a function of $`R`$ only:

$$F_R^{(Q)}(R)=\frac{C}{R^3},$$
(62)
where $`C`$ is a positive constant. This force is always repulsive away from $`R=0`$, is strongest when $`R(\tau )`$ is minimum and is responsible for the avoidance of the singularity in the quantum domain.

### 7.2 The Case of Positive Spatial Curvature

Now the wave function (47) takes the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,\chi ,\tau )=\sqrt{\frac{4\sqrt{\sigma \beta }}{\pi }}\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{exp}\left(i𝒮\right),$$
(63)
with $`𝒮`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ given by

$$\mathrm{\Theta }=g_1(\tau )\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{\sigma R^2}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\frac{\beta \chi ^2}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\right\}$$
(64)
and

$$𝒮=f_1(\tau )+\frac{R^2}{2\mathrm{tan}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\right]\frac{\chi ^2}{2\mathrm{tan}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\right].$$
(65)
The Bohmian trajectories are determined by

$$\dot{R}(\tau )=\frac{1}{\mathrm{tan}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\right]R(\tau ),$$
(66)
$$\dot{\chi }(\tau )=\frac{1}{\mathrm{tan}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau }\right]\chi (\tau ).$$
(67)
Integration yields

$$R(\tau )=A_+\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau },\chi (\tau )=B_+\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau },$$
(68)
where $`A_+`$ and $`B_+`$ are constants of integration, with $`A_+>0`$. Both $`R`$ and $`\chi `$ oscillate eternally between minimum and maximum values.

The quantum potential is

$$Q(R,\chi ,\tau )=h(\tau )\frac{2\sigma ^2R^2}{\left(\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau \right)^2}+\frac{2\beta ^2\chi ^2}{\left(\mathrm{cos}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sin}^2\tau \right)^2},$$
(69)
from which it is easily seen that the quantum force is again of the form (62).

Only the interval $`[0,\pi ]`$ is physically acceptable for $`\tau `$ at the classical level, corresponding to the initial and final singularities. In the quantum realm, however, $`\tau `$ may take values over the whole real line, there being no singularity in virtue of the repulsive character of the quantum force. Differently from the flat case, in which only the quantum potential exists, in the present case ($`k=1`$) the classical an quantum potentials compete. However, as equation (62) shows, the repulsive quantum force is much stronger that the classical force near the singularity.

### 7.3 The Case of Negative Spatial Curvature

The results for $`k=1`$ follow from those for $`k=1`$ by simply replacing the trigonometric functions by the corresponding hyperbolic functions. The Bohmian trajectories satisfy

$$\dot{R}(\tau )=\frac{1}{\mathrm{tanh}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sinh}^2\tau }\right]R(\tau ),$$
(70)
$$\dot{\chi }(\tau )=\frac{1}{\mathrm{tanh}\tau }\left[1\frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sinh}^2\tau }\right]\chi (\tau ),$$
(71)
which are solved by

$$R(\tau )=A_{}\sqrt{\mathrm{cosh}^2\tau +4\sigma ^2\mathrm{sinh}^2\tau },\chi (\tau )=B_{}\sqrt{\mathrm{cosh}^2\tau +4\beta ^2\mathrm{sinh}^2\tau }.$$
(72)
with $`A_{}>0`$. Once again the quantum force as a function of $`R`$ is given by (62).

## 8 Conclusion and Final Remarks

In this work we quantized Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological models having for matter content a perfect fluid and a conformal scalar field. We found static wormhole wave functions in the cases of radiation and cosmic strings. In the radiation case the discrete set of wormhole quantum states was previously known in the literature. In the case of cosmic strings we found a new continuous family of static quantum wormholes with arbitrary throat radii. The members of this continuous set of finite-norm wave functions are not orthogonal to each other because the Hilbert state of states is separable. In this aspect they resemble the overcomplete set of coherent states of the harmonic oscillator. For cosmic strings an evolving-wormhole wave packet was constructed leading to a dynamically open universe, although the spatial geometry is closed. If the initial state of the Universe is sufficiently localized near the classical singularity, the scale factor is enormously large immediately after the initial instant, a phenomenon described in the literature as “inflation without inflation”. In the radiation case, with the help of the exact propagator we constructed wave packets that are examples of dynamic quantum wormholes. The behaviour of the scale factor was studied according to the Bohm-de Broglie interpretation of quantum mechanics. In all three cases ($`k=0,\pm 1`$) the singularity is prevented by a quantum force inversely proportional to the cube of the scale factor. Also, in all three cases, the integral $`_{\mathrm{}}^t𝑑\tau ^{}/R(\tau ^{})`$ is divergent, so that for the states considered the models have no particle horizon.

## Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil, for finantial support. Special thanks are due to F. G. Alvarenga and J. C. Fabris for discussions and for reading a preliminary version of the manuscript.


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# 3-Form Induced Potentials, Dilaton Stabilization, and Running Moduli

## I Introduction

If we believe that string theory (or M-theory) is the fundamental description of interactions in our universe, then we are obviously forced to place the basic processes of cosmology into a string theoretic framework. Important steps have been made in this direction by examining four dimensional supergravity models for potentials that could support the early phase of the accelerated expansion of the universe, known as inflation, which solves some of the outstanding problems of the hot big bang cosmology Linde:1990nc . See, for recent examples, Kallosh:2001gr ; Kallosh:2002wj . Other work has identified string theory models in which D-brane physics leads to inflation Kallosh:2002wj ; Herdeiro:2001zb ; Mazumdar:2001mp ; Dasgupta:2002ew ; Burgess:2001fx . At the same time, however, it has proven challenging to incorporate cosmological acceleration into string theory backgrounds because they tend to relax to supersymmetric vacua Hellerman:2001yi ; Fischler:2001yj  (note also that Burgess:2001fx  found inflation only in a small region of moduli space). In this paper, we ask whether a stringy potential generated by higher dimensional magnetic fields can give rise to accelerated expansion. We restrict our analysis to the classical potential of supergravity.

We study a class of exact solutions to IIB supergravity that have a vacuum state (denoted by superscript $`(0)`$) with $`3`$-form magnetic fluxes that satisfy a self-duality relation

$$_6^{(0)}(FC^{(0)}H)=e^{\mathrm{\Phi }^{(0)}}H$$
(1)
on the compact space, which should be Calabi-Yau Grana:2000jj ; Gubser:2000vg . These vacua were described in some detail in Giddings:2001yu  and in dual versions in Gukov:1999ya ; Dasgupta:1999ss ; Greene:2000gh ; Becker:1996gj ; Becker:2002sx . The metric is of “warped product” form,

$$ds^{(0)2}=e^A\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu +e^Ag_{mn}dy^mdy^n,$$
(2)
so these models have the phenomenology of the Randall-Sundrum models Randall:1999ee ; Randall:1999vf ; Mayr:2000zd . The warp factor depends on the position of D3-branes (and orientifold planes) on the compact space and also determines the $`5`$-form field strength. The condition (1) gives rise to a potential for many of the light scalars, including the dilaton generically, which vanishes at the classical minimum and furthermore has no preferred compactification volume. We will be interested in the behavior of these systems above the minimum, and the $`4`$D metric will generalize $`\eta _{\mu \nu }g_{\mu \nu }`$.

For simplicity, we will mainly consider the case where the internal manifold is a $`T^6/𝐙_2`$ orientifold, as described in Verlinde:1999fy ; Kachru:2002he ; Frey:2002hf  (or in dual forms in Argurio:2002gv ; Becker:2002sx ). We take the torus coordinates to have square periodicities, $`x^mx^m+2\pi l_s`$, so that the geometric structure is encoded in the metric. On this torus, the $`3`$-form components must satisfy the Dirac quantization conditions

$$H_{mnp}=\frac{1}{2\pi l_s}h_{mnp},F_{mnp}=\frac{1}{2\pi l_s}f_{mnp},h_{mnp},f_{mnp}𝐙.$$
(3)
Boundary conditions at the orientifold planes give large Kaluza-Klein masses to many fields (including the metric components $`g_{\mu m}`$, for example), and the remaining theory is described by an effective $`4`$D gauged $`𝒩=4`$ supergravity with completely or partially broken supersymmetry via the superHiggs effect Tsokur:1996gr ; Andrianopoli:2002rm ; Andrianopoli:2002mf ; Andrianopoli:2002aq ; D'Auria:2002tc ; Ferrara:2002bt .

In the following section, we discuss the dimensional reduction of the IIB superstring in toroidal compactifications with self-dual $`3`$-form flux, ignoring the warp factor, paying particular attention to the potential for a subset of the light scalars. Next, in section III, we find the cosmological evolution driven by our potential based on known inflationary models; we find that our potentials do not lead to an accelerating universe. Finally, in section IV, we comment on the generalization of our results to more complicated models, compare our results to other models that do lead to inflation, and discuss corrections to our potential that might or might not lead to inflation.

## II Dimensional Reduction and Potential

Here we will review the dimensional reduction of $`10`$D IIB supergravity in compactifications with imaginary self-dual $`3`$-form flux on the internal manifold. For simplicity and specificity, we will concentrate on the toroidal compactifications of Kachru:2002he ; Frey:2002hf , extending our analysis to more general cases in section IV. We will ignore the warp factor, which assumes that the compactification radius is large compared to the string scale111Actually, because the warp factor $`A`$ scales like $`R^4`$ Greene:2000gh ; Frey:2002hf , the radius need only be a few times the string scale for our approximation to be reasonable..

### II.1 Kinetic Terms

We will start with the kinetic terms, mostly following the analysis of Frey:2002hf , using the $`𝒩=4`$ $`SO(6,22)\times SU(1,1)/SO(6)\times SO(22)\times U(1)`$ language because we are studying configurations away from the moduli space at the bottom of the potential. Our main purpose is to identify the physical interpretation of the canonically normalized scalars, so we will skip the algebraic details.

As was shown in Frey:2002hf , the moduli must be tensor densities in order to avoid double trace terms in the action,

$$\gamma ^{mn}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}e^\mathrm{\Phi }g^{mn},\beta ^{mn}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{24!}ϵ^{mnpqrs}C_{pqrs},\mathrm{\Delta }\sqrt{detg_{mn}},$$
(4)
along with the D-brane positions222If the D-branes are coincident, the index $`I`$ labels the adjoint representation of $`U(N)`$; the kinetic terms remain the same Ferrara:2002bt . $`\alpha _I^m=X_I^m/2\pi l_s`$ and the $`10`$D dilaton-axion. For the purpose of cosmology, we want to work in the $`4`$D Einstein frame (note that this is different than in Frey:2002hf  because we are allowing the dilaton to vary)

$$g_{\mu \nu }^E=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}e^{2\mathrm{\Phi }}g_{\mu \nu }.$$
(5)
From stringy dualities, it can be seen that the moduli definitions (4) correspond to the geometric moduli $`g_{mn},B_{mn}`$ in a toroidal heterotic compactification, and the metric (5) is the $`4`$D “canonical metric” Sen:1994fa ; Schwarz:1993mg  in the heterotic description Frey:2002hf 333Strictly speaking, these are only the heterotic dual variables with vanishing fluxes; see Becker:2002sx ..

The kinetic action obtained from dimensional reduction of IIB SUGRA and the D3-brane action is then

$`S_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^2}{16\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^4x\sqrt{g_E}[R_E+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_\mu \gamma _{mn}^\mu \gamma ^{mn}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\gamma _{mp}\gamma _{nq}D_\mu \beta ^{mn}D^\mu \beta ^{qp}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\gamma _{mn}_\mu \alpha _I^m^\mu \alpha _I^n`$ (6)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2\mathrm{\Phi }}_\mu C^\mu C],M_P^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi ^2l_s^2}}.`$
Here, $`M_P`$ is the Planck mass, and we are using a coset space covariant derivative

$$D_\mu \beta ^{mn}_\mu \beta ^{mn}+\frac{1}{2}\left(\alpha _I^m_\mu \alpha _I^n\alpha _I^n_\mu \alpha _I^m\right)$$
(7)
which arises from the magnetic coupling of the D3-branes to $`\beta `$; this is the dimensionally reduced action for the heterotic theory of Maharana:1993my ; Sen:1994fa , as one might expect. In deriving the action, one needs the identity

$$\gamma ^{mn}_\mu \gamma _{mn}=\gamma _{mn}_\mu \gamma ^{mn}=6_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }4_\mu \mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(8)
It is easiest to study the cosmology of canonically normalized scalars; so we will break down the geometric moduli. For simplicity we will consider only the factorized case $`T^6=(T^2)^3`$. We can then parameterize the metric on an individual 2-torus (say, the $`(47)`$ torus) as

$$\gamma ^{mn}=e^{2\sigma }\left[\begin{array}{cc}e^\zeta +e^\zeta d^2& e^\zeta d\\ e^\zeta d& e^\zeta \end{array}\right].$$
(9)
Here, $`\sigma `$ gives the overall size of the $`T^2`$, $`\zeta `$ gives the relative length of the two sides, and $`d`$ controls the angle between the two directions of periodicity. Then the $`\gamma `$ kinetic term becomes

$$S_{\mathrm{kin}}=\frac{M_P^2}{16\pi }d^4x\sqrt{g_E}\underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}\left[2_\mu \sigma _i^\mu \sigma _i+\frac{1}{2}_\mu \zeta _i^\mu \zeta _i+\frac{1}{2}_\mu d_i^\mu d_i\right].$$
(10)
For canonical normalization, the coefficient of the kinetic terms should simply be $`1/2`$, so a further rescaling is necessary.

### II.2 Potential

The scalar potential comes from dimensional reduction of the background $`3`$-form terms in the IIB action. After converting to our variables, the potential for the bulk modes is, in generality,

$$V=\frac{M_P^2}{4!32\pi }\left(det\gamma _{mn}\right)\gamma ^{mq}\gamma ^{nr}\gamma ^{ps}\left[e^\mathrm{\Phi }(FCH)_{mnp}(FCH)_{qrs}+e^\mathrm{\Phi }H_{mnp}H_{qrs}\right]$$
(11)
along with an additional term that subtracts off the vacuum energy 444This comes from the D3/O3 tension, which must cancel the vacuum potential for string tadpole conditions to be satisfied to leading order in $`l_s`$.. This potential was derived from dimensional reduction in Giddings:2001yu ; Kachru:2002he , from gauged supergravity in Tsokur:1996gr ; D'Auria:2002tc , and from the superpotential of Gukov:1999ya . One feature to note in this potential is that it always has (at least) three flat directions at the minimum, corresponding to the radii of factorization $`T^6=T^2\times T^2\times T^2`$. Also, the $`\beta `$ moduli do not enter into the potential, although some become Goldstone bosons via the super Higgs effect Tsokur:1996gr ; Frey:2002hf ; Andrianopoli:2002rm ; Andrianopoli:2002mf .

For cosmological purposes, we will need to have a more explicit form of the potential in hand. Since there are 23 scalars $`\gamma ^{mn},\mathrm{\Phi },C`$, writing the full potential for a given set of 3-form fluxes would be prohibitively complicated, but we can write down a few simple examples and focus on the universal aspects.

The simplest case is to take the three $`T^2`$ to be square, so that the geometric moduli are $`\gamma ^{44}=\gamma ^{77}=e^{2\sigma _1}`$, etc., with all others vanishing. Then, above a vacuum that satisfies (1), we can calculate the potential

$`V_{\mathrm{dil}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^4}{4(8\pi )^3}}h^2e^{2_i\sigma _i}\left[e^{\mathrm{\Phi }^{(0)}}\mathrm{cosh}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }^{(0)}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^\mathrm{\Phi }\left(CC^{(0)}\right)^21\right],`$ (12)
$`h^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}h_{mnp}h_{qrs}\delta ^{mq}\delta ^{nr}\delta ^{ps}`$ (13)
This potential was written explicitly in $`SU(1,1)`$ notation in D'Auria:2002tc  and is valid for any 3-form background. The most important feature of this potential is that there is a vanishing vacuum energy, and, further, the radial moduli $`\sigma `$ feels a potential only when the dilaton-axion system is excited. Since this is the simplest potential to write down, it will be our primary focus in section III. It is very interesting to note that the cosmology of this potential for the dilaton-axion has been discussed earlier in Fre:2002pd ; Kallosh:2002wj ; Kallosh:2002gf  from SUGRA. Importantly, though, their models did not include the radial moduli or the negative term that subtracts off the cosmological constant.

Adding the complex structure is more complicated and more model-dependent. The simplest possible case, for example, $`f_{456}=h_{789}`$, is non generic in that (1) is satisfied at $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i\zeta _i=C=d_i=0`$, so the $`\zeta _i`$ give extra moduli compared to other background fluxes (at the classical level). However, we still have $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i\zeta _i`$ fixed by a $`\mathrm{cosh}`$ potential with a polynomial in $`C,d_i`$:

$`V_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^4}{4(8\pi )^3}}h^2e^{2_i\sigma _i}\{\mathrm{cosh}(\mathrm{\Phi }{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\zeta _i)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{\mathrm{\Phi }+_i\zeta _i}[C^22Cd_1d_2d_3`$ (14)
$`+d_1^2d_2^2d_3^2+e^{2\zeta _3}d_1^2d_2^2+e^{2\zeta _2}d_1^2d_3^2+e^{2\zeta _1}d_2^2d_3^2`$
$`+e^{2\zeta _22\zeta _3}d_1^2+e^{2\zeta _12\zeta _3}d_2^2+e^{2\zeta _12\zeta _2}d_3^2{\displaystyle \frac{}{}}]1\}`$
using again (13). It is straightforward but tedious to show that this potential is positive definite, and the only extremum is at $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i\zeta _i=C=d_i=0`$. As this case is nonsupersymmetric, quantum mechanical corrections should lift the flat directions.

On the other end of the supersymmetry spectrum are the $`𝒩=3`$ models of Frey:2002hf , which fix the dilaton as well as all the complex structure. If we ignore $`C,d_i`$ (set them to a vanishing vacuum value), we find a potential

$`V_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^4}{(8\pi )^3}}h^2e^{2_i\sigma _i}[{\displaystyle \frac{}{}}\mathrm{cosh}(\mathrm{\Phi }\zeta _1\zeta _2\zeta _3)+\mathrm{cosh}(\mathrm{\Phi }\zeta _1+\zeta _2+\zeta _3)`$ (15)
$`+\mathrm{cosh}(\mathrm{\Phi }+\zeta _1\zeta _2+\zeta _3)+\mathrm{cosh}(\mathrm{\Phi }+\zeta _1+\zeta _2\zeta _3)4].`$
This again has the same $`\mathrm{cosh}`$ structure for the dilaton; the only difference is a factor of $`4`$ due to the number of components of flux in the background.

Including the non-Abelian coupling for the D3-brane scalars $`\alpha _I^m`$ introduces new terms in the potential (see Ferrara:2002bt  for a supersymmetry based approach). In the absence of fluxes and even in the ground state, this potential is monotonic and simply forces the $`\alpha _I^m`$ to commute. Otherwise, the branes pick up a $`5`$-brane dipole moment and become non-commuting, as discussed in Myers:1999ps . Writing the brane positions as $`U(N)`$ matrices, the potential is

$`V_\mathrm{b}`$ $`=`$ $`2\pi M_P^4[2\pi e^\mathrm{\Phi }\gamma _{mp}\gamma _{nq}tr\left([\alpha ^m,\alpha ^n][\alpha ^q,\alpha ^p]\right){\displaystyle \frac{}{}}`$ (16)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{12}}(det\gamma _{mn})^{1/2}e^\mathrm{\Phi }(e^\mathrm{\Phi }h_6(fCh))_{mnp}tr\left(\alpha ^m\alpha ^n\alpha ^p\right)].`$
To illustrate this potential, we take $`f_{456}=h_{789}`$ as before, set $`C=d_i=\zeta _i=0`$, and consider $`\alpha ^{4,5,6}I_N`$ and $`\alpha ^{7,8,9}=\rho t^{1,2,3}`$ with $`t^i`$ a representation of $`SU(2)`$. Then

$$V_\mathrm{b}=2\pi M_P^4\left[16\pi e^\mathrm{\Phi }\left(e^{2\sigma _12\sigma _2}+e^{2\sigma _12\sigma _3}+e^{2\sigma _22\sigma _3}\right)\rho ^4+\frac{h_{789}}{2}e^{2_i\sigma _i}e^\mathrm{\Phi }\left(e^\mathrm{\Phi }1\right)\rho ^3\right].$$
(17)
There are actually more terms in this potential as required by supersymmetry; these are just the lowest order terms that appear in the D-brane action given by Myers:1999ps . For example, the underlying $`𝒩=4`$ supersymmetry gives a $`\rho ^6`$ term555We thank S. Ferrara for discussions on this point., and there is also a $`\rho ^2`$ term from gravitational backreaction that has been calculated using supersymmetry in one case (see Polchinski:2000uf ); in any event, there is a local maximum in the $`\alpha _I^m`$ direction. Like the bulk potential, this potential has exponential prefactors from the $`\sigma `$ moduli, and if the bulk scalars are away from their minimum, there is the same $`\mathrm{exp}[2_i\sigma _i]`$ factor.

The key point to take from this discussion of the potential is the exponential prefactor that appears in all terms, whether bulk or brane modes.

## III Cosmological evolution

In this section we seek the cosmological evolution of the dilaton and the moduli fields in a flat $`d=4`$ dimensional space time background. However, for the purpose of illustration it is prudent that we consider a toy model which illustrates the behavior of the potentials $`V_{dil},V_0`$ and $`V_3`$ described in the earlier section.

$$Ve^{_i\alpha _i\sigma _i}V(\mathrm{\Phi }).$$
(18)
Let us also assume that the above potential has a global minimum $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ determined by $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$. At $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ the potential vanishes. In the above, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ mimics the dilaton and $`\sigma _i`$ play the role of moduli with various coefficients $`\alpha _i`$ determines the slope of the potential. For generality we have assumed that there are $`i`$ number of moduli. In our original potential all the slopes are fixed at $`\alpha _i=4\sqrt{\pi }/M_P`$ (with normalized scalars), see Eq. (14). We will model $`V_b`$ by slightly different potential.

For the sake of simplicity and generality in Eq. (14), we do not assume any form for $`d_i`$ and $`\zeta _i`$ at the moment. It is interesting to note that the potential Eq. (18) is quite adequate to determine the cosmological evolution if they dominate the energy density, which is fixed by the value $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ in our case. Further note that $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })(M_P)^4`$ 666Strictly speaking potential energy ought to be less than $`(M_P)^4`$ in order to make sense of field theoretic description of the expanding universe.. Therefore, given generic initial conditions for all the moduli $`\sigma _iM_P`$ in the dimensionally reduced action, we hope that the rolling moduli could lead to the expansion of the universe. In order to see this clearly, one must obtain the equations of motion for both dilaton and moduli if coupled to the gravity in a Robertson-Walker space-time metric with an expansion factor $`a(t)`$, where $`t`$ represents the physical time. The equations of motion are in the Einstein frame

$`\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+3H\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+e^{_i\alpha _i\sigma _i}V^{}(\mathrm{\Phi })=0,`$ (19)
$`\ddot{\sigma }_i+3H\dot{\sigma }_i\alpha _ie^{_i\alpha _i\sigma _i}V(\mathrm{\Phi })=0,`$ (20)
$`H^2={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3M_\mathrm{P}^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\dot{\sigma }_i^2+e^{_i\alpha _i\sigma _i}V(\mathrm{\Phi })\right].`$ (21)
The Hubble expansion is given by $`\dot{a}/a`$, an overdot denotes derivative w.r.t physical time and prime denotes differentiation w.r.t $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$.

Note that depending upon the slopes of the fields along their classical trajectories the dilaton can roll slowly compared to the moduli, in which case we might be able to solve the moduli equations exactly777We are obviously assuming apriori that the dilaton is moving very slowly which may or may not be the case. Nevertheless, our scenario shall be able to discern some of the aspects of the actual dynamics, such as inflationary or non-inflationary.. With this simple assumption we first consider Eqs. (20,21) with $`\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}\dot{\sigma }_i`$, and $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })V_0`$, the latter condition is true if the dilaton time varying vev changes slowly. Much stronger condition can be laid on the kinetic terms for the moduli and dilaton if we assume

$$\dot{\sigma }_i\frac{M_PV^{}(\mathrm{\Phi })}{2\sqrt{2\pi }\alpha _iV(\mathrm{\Phi })}\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}.$$
(22)
The above equation can be derived from Eqs. (19,20) by assuming $`\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}3H\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, $`\ddot{\sigma }_i3H\dot{\sigma }_i`$ and $`\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}\dot{\sigma }`$, which is equivalent to slow-roll conditions.

Now we are interested in solving the moduli field evolution without imposing slow roll conditions on them. We argue that there exists an attractor region with a power law solution $`a(t)t^p`$, which from Eq. (21), dimensionally satisfies $`H^2t^2e^{_i\alpha _i\sigma _i}V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$. Hence we write

$`e^{\alpha _i\sigma _i}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k_i}{t^{c_i}}},`$ (23)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}c_i`$ $`=`$ $`2,`$ (24)
where $`k_i`$ are dimensional and $`c_i`$ are dimensionless constants respectively. Eq.(23), coupled with the equations of motion Eq. (20) results in

$$(3p1)c_i=\alpha _i^2V(\mathrm{\Phi })\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}k_k,$$
(25)
from which we find, using Eq.(24) and Eq.(20):

$`V(\mathrm{\Phi }){\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}k_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2(3p1)}{_{i=1}^n\alpha _i^2}},`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{c_i}{\alpha _i}}\right)^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\alpha _i^2}{\left(_{k=1}^n\alpha _k^2\right)^2}}.`$ (26)
When substituted into Eq.(21) with $`\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}\dot{\sigma }_i`$, we obtain the key result without using any slow roll condition for the moduli where the exponent of the scale factor $`a(t)t^p`$ goes as

$$p=\frac{16\pi }{M_P^2}\frac{1}{_{j=1}^n\alpha _j^2}.$$
(27)
We also note that the scaling solution for the moduli fields can be found quickly as follows for any two moduli, $`\sigma _i`$ and $`\sigma _k`$:

$$\left(\frac{\dot{\sigma }_i}{\dot{\sigma }_k}\right)^2=\left(\frac{\alpha _i}{\alpha _k}\right)^2.$$
(28)
The above equation ensures the late time attractor behavior for all the moduli in our case, which has a similarity to the assisted inflation discussed in Liddle:1998jc ; Copeland:1999cs . From Eqs. (23,24), we can also write

$$\sigma _i=\sigma _i(0)\frac{c_i}{\alpha _i}\mathrm{ln}t,$$
(29)
where $`\sigma _i(0)`$ is a constant depending on the initial conditions.

Inflationary solutions exist provided $`p>1`$, which can be attained in our case only when the slopes $`\alpha _i`$ are small enough, or in other words the moduli should have sufficiently shallower slope. The power law solution also applies to any $`p`$ in the range $`0<p<1`$, where the expansion is non-inflationary.

Note that so far we have neglected the dynamics of the dilaton. In spite of rolling down slowly, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ eventually comes down to the bottom of the potential. So, the prime question is how fast does it roll down to its minimum $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$. This will again depend on the exact slope of the potential for $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$. Nevertheless, if we demand that the dilaton is indeed rolling down slowly such as $`\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}3H\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, then we can mimic the slow-roll regime for the dilaton, and the situation mimics that of soft-inflation studied in Refs. Berkin:1990ju ; Berkin:1991nm ; Mazumdar:1999tk .

$`f(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ $`=`$ $`f(\mathrm{\Phi }_0)p\mathrm{ln}t,`$ (30)
where

$$f(\mathrm{\Phi })\frac{8\pi }{M_P^2}𝑑\mathrm{\Phi }\frac{V(\mathrm{\Phi })}{V^{}(\mathrm{\Phi })}.$$
(31)
Here the subscript $`0`$ indicates the initial value.

With $`at^p`$ and $`e^{\alpha _i\sigma _i}V(\mathrm{\Phi })H^2`$, we can then parameterize the dilaton equation of motion by

$$\ddot{\mathrm{\Phi }}+3H\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}=cH^2\mathrm{\Phi },$$
(32)
where $`c`$ is a constant factor which determines the unknown shape parameter of $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$, which ought to be smaller than one in order to be consistent with the Hubble equation Eq. (21). In this case, we can find the exact solution for the dilaton

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(t)a^\eta ;\eta =\frac{1}{2}\left[\left(3\frac{1}{p}\right)\sqrt{\left(3\frac{1}{p}\right)^24c}\right].$$
(33)
Unlike the dilaton, the moduli have no minimum, and they face the usual run away moduli problem. Note that once dilaton reaches its minimum the potential Eq. (18) vanishes, and so the effective potential for the moduli. However, once the expansion of the universe driven by the dynamics for the moduli comes to an end, the dilaton settles down at $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$, then the moduli still continue to evolve accordingly

$$\frac{d}{dt}(\dot{\sigma }_ia(t)^3)=0,$$
(34)
provided there is some source of energy-momentum tensor supporting the expansion of the universe. The moduli can indeed come to rest at some finite value.

So far we have been concentrating upon the toy model with the potential Eq. (18). Nevertheless, the situation remains unchanged for the type of potentials we are interested in, see Eqs. (12,14,15). Note that the dynamical behavior of the moduli will remain unchanged, but the dilaton may roll slow or fast depending upon the actual slope of the dilaton potential. By inspecting the potentials we find the corresponding slope of the moduli, i.e. $`\alpha _i=4\sqrt{\pi }/M_P`$, and $`n=3`$. Therefore, the moduli driven expansion of the universe leads to

$$p=\frac{1}{3}<1;a(t)t^{1/3}.$$
(35)
The expansion is non-inflationary and will not solve any of the outstanding problems of the big bang cosmology. Nevertheless, this expansion which is slower than either radiation dominated or matter dominated epoch could be the precursor or end stage of inflation in this particular model.

Now, we briefly comment on bulk potential derived in Eq. (17). Note, even if the dilaton is settled down the minimum with $`e^\mathrm{\Phi }=1`$, the moduli fields still contribute to the potential. It would then be interesting to note whether we get any expansion of the universe from the moduli driven potential. Further note that the structure of the potential is quite different from Eq. (18). The potential rather follows (taking $`\rho `$ to be slowly rolling and $`\rho 1`$)

$$V_b=32\pi ^2M_P^4\rho ^4\underset{s=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{j=1}{\overset{m}{}}\alpha _{sj}\sigma _j\right).$$
(36)
This kind of potential has also been solved exactly without using slow-roll conditions Copeland:1999cs . Of course with the possibility of some of $`\alpha _{sj}=0`$ for some combination of $`s,j`$. Our case Eq. (17) exemplifies with $`s,j=1,2,3`$. For Eq. (36), again we demand that $`\mathrm{exp}\left(_{j=1}^m\alpha _{sj}\sigma _j\right)1/t^2`$. The late time attractor solution for the moduli fields can be established with Copeland:1999cs

$$\left(\frac{\dot{\sigma }_j}{\dot{\sigma }_l}\right)^2=\left(\frac{_{q=1}^n\alpha _{qj}B^q}{_{r=1}^n\alpha _{rl}B^r}\right)^2.$$
(37)
In the above equation $`B\left(_{j=1}^m\alpha _{sj}\alpha _{qj}\right)_{COF}^T`$, where $`T`$ stands for transpose and $`COF`$ stands for the cofactor, and $`B^s_{q=1}^nB_{sq}`$ is the sum of elements in row $`s`$. The power law solution $`a(t)t^p`$ can be found to be Copeland:1999cs

$$p=\frac{16\pi }{M_P^2}\frac{_s^n_q^nB_{sq}}{\mathrm{det}\mathrm{A}},$$
(38)
where $`A_{sq}=_{j=1}^m\alpha _{sj}\alpha _{qj}`$.

Now, we can read $`\alpha _{sj}`$ from Eq. (17). After little calculation with the normalized $`\alpha _{sj}`$, we obtain the value of $`p`$ from Eq. (38)

$$p=\frac{3}{16}1.$$
(39)
Again we find that there is no accelerated expansion. The assisted inflation in all these cases provides expansion but could not be used to solve inflation or even late time acceleration during the matter dominated era. In all our examples we found that the moduli trajectories follow the late time attractor towards the supersymmetric vacuum. Finally, a word upon supersymmetry breaking in the observable sector, which will induce mass $`1`$ TeV to the moduli and dilaton in gravity mediation. Unless the moduli amplitude is damped considerably, the large amplitude oscillations of the moduli field will eventually be a cause for worry (through particle production). The late time moduli domination may lead to the infamous moduli problem carlos:1993cc .

## IV Discussion

In this section, we would like to comment on the conclusion that we cannot get power-law inflation (or quintessence) from the $`3`$-form induced potential. The reason seems related to comments in Hellerman:2001yi ; Fischler:2001yj ; exponential potentials consistent with the constraints of supersymmetry are generically too steep. Our results, then, are consistent with a generalization to many fields of the work of Hellerman:2001yi ; Fischler:2001yj  that a system cannot simultaneously relax to a supersymmetric minimum and cause cosmological acceleration. Even though the models considered here do not necessarily preserve supersymmetry, they are all classically of “no-scale” structure, meaning that they all have vanishing cosmological constant and no potential for the radial moduli. So even the non-supersymmetric vacua have characteristics of supersymmetric cases. Furthermore, the potential arises from the supergravity Ward identity Tsokur:1996gr ; D'Auria:2002tc , which means it suffers from the same kind of constraints imposed by the arguments of Hellerman:2001yi ; Fischler:2001yj . Heuristically, the vacua of our system give Minkowski space time, which is static, and there is no way to accelerate into a static state.

This sort of argument based on supersymmetry is readily generalized to the Calabi-Yau models with 3-form fluxes that were studied in Giddings:2001yu . Indeed, the form of the bulk mode potential (11) is identical, although the complex structure decomposition of the metric will differ from case to case. The key thing to note is that the overall scale of the internal manifold is always a modulus, as if we set $`\sigma _{1,2,3}=\sigma `$. In fact, it works out so that the exponential prefactor gives the same $`at^{1/3}`$ evolution. The potential for brane modes should also be similar, at least for small non-Abelian parts of the brane coordinates. Considering a more complicated CY compactification is not the route to an accelerating universe. Again, this seems to be a feature of the broken supersymmetry.

We should contrast this case to other work that does find inflationary physics in supergravity. In the 1980s, Kounnas:1985vh ; Molera:1987ks  found no-scale supergravities with inflation, but they specified the potential to give slow-roll inflation. The freedom to insist on inflation does not exist here. More recently, other gauged supergravities have been found that can give at least a give few e-foldings of inflation Kallosh:2001gr ; Kallosh:2002gf ; Kallosh:2002wj ; Fre:2002pd , but these do not yet have a known embedding in string theory. These gauged supergravities are not of the no-scale type and have a cosmological constant. Also, Herdeiro:2001zb ; Dasgupta:2002ew ; Kallosh:2002wj  describe inflation based on the motion of branes in a warp factor. In fact, Dasgupta:2002ew ; Kallosh:2002wj  use a background very similar to the one considered here but include the warp factor.

There is clearly, then, some hope for finding acceleration in compactifications with 3-form magnetic fields, and it is possible to think of other methods than D3-brane motion. For example, the warp factor can modify the potential, although it does not seem likely to change the basic features. Another possibility is that the small volume region of moduli space, where supergravity breaks down, has a different form of the potential. It has been argued that some IIB compactifications with flux with one $`T^2`$ shrinking are dual to heterotic compactifications with intrinsically stringy monodromies Becker:2002sx ; Hellerman:2002ax , so it is conceivable that inflation could occur in such a compactification with a decelerating end stage described by our model.

Finally, there are many possible corrections associated with supersymmetry breaking. It is known that there should be stringy corrections to the potential in nonsupersymmetric cases and that these would break the no-scale structure, giving the radial modulus mass (at least in the CY case) Becker:2002nn , and there should also be supergravity loop corrections. It would be very difficult to compute this potential, but it seems likely that the potential could have a local maximum for the compactification radius, allowing for inflation. There are also potentials from instanton corrections, given by wrapped Euclidean D3-branes Frey:2002hf . Since the instanton action is proportional to the volume of the cycle it wraps, it would actually generate a potential like the exponential of an exponential. This type of potential could very possibly be shallow enough to support inflation, although we have not investigated this point.

In summary, we have examined the cosmology induced by $`3`$-form fluxes in type IIB superstring compactifications and concluded that the classical bulk action does not lead to inflation or quintessence because the potential contains exponential factors that are too steep, much as in Hellerman:2001yi ; Fischler:2001yj . However, we have noted loopholes in our analysis which could allow accelerating cosmologies. We leave the exploration of those loopholes for future work.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors are thankful to Cliff Burgess, Ed Copeland, Sergio Ferrara, and Joseph Polchinski for helpful discussions and feedback. The work of A.F. is supported by National Science Foundation grant PHY97-22022. A.M. is a Cita-National fellow.