Quantum instability of an oscillating universe
Résumé
An oscillating, compact Friedmann universe with a massive conformally coupled scalar field is studied in the framework of quantum cosmology. The scalar field is treated as a perturbation, and we look for solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation describing stable stationary states of the model. We assume that the previous sources of quantum instability that have been discussed in the literature (particle production and tunneling to zero size) are absent. We then show, under rather general assumptions, that a further source of quantum instability prevents the existence of stationary states with localized wave function in the direction of the scalar-field modes.