We consider the influence of extra dimensions on the force in Casimir pistons. Suitable analytical expressions are provided for the Casimir force in the range where the plate distance is small, and where it is large, compared to the size of the extra dimensions. We show that the Casimir force tends to move the center plate toward the closer wall; this result is true independently of the cross section of the piston and the geometry or topology of the additional Kaluza-Klein dimensions. The statement also remains true at finite temperature. In the limit where one wall of the piston is moved to infinity, the result for parallel plates is recovered. If only one chamber is considered, a criterion for the occurrence of Lukosz-type repulsion, as opposed to the occurrence of renormalization ambiguities, is given; we comment on why no repulsion has been noted in some previous cosmological calculations that consider only two plates.

In this paper, we provide a systematic investigation of high-order primordial perturbations with nonlinear dispersion relations due to quantum gravitational effects in the framework of uniform asymptotic approximations. Because of these effects, the equation of motion of the mode function in general has multiple turning points. After obtaining analytically approximated solutions to any order in different regions, associated with different types of turning points, we match them to the third one. To this order the errors are less than 0.15%. General expressions of the power spectra of the primordial tensor and scalar perturbations are derived explicitly. We also investigate effects of backreactions of the quantum gravitational corrections, and make sure that inflation lasts long enough in order to solve the underlying problems, such as flatness, horizon, and monopole. Then we study various features of the spectra that are observationally relevant. In particular, under a moderate assumption about the energy scale of the underlying theory of quantum gravity, we have shown that the quantum gravitational effects may alter significantly the ratio between the tensor and scalar power spectra, thereby providing a natural mechanism to alleviate the tension between observations and certain inflationary models, including the one with a quadratic potential.

Loop quantum cosmology provides a resolution of the classical big bang singularity in the deep Planck era. The evolution, prior to the usual slow-roll inflation, naturally generates excited states at the onset of the slow-roll inflation. It is expected that these quantum gravitational effects could leave its fingerprints on the primordial perturbation spectrum and non-Gaussianity, and lead to some observational evidences in the cosmic microwave background. While the impact of the quantum effects on the primordial perturbation spectrum has been already studied and constrained by current data, in this paper we continue to study such effects but now on the non-Gaussianity of the primordial curvature perturbations. We present detailed and analytical calculations of the non-Gaussianity and show explicitly that the corrections due to the quantum effects are at the same magnitude of the slow-roll parameters in the observable scales and thus are well within current observational constraints. Despite this, we show that the non-Gaussianity in the squeezed limit can be enhanced at superhorizon scales and it is these effects that can yield a large statistical anisotropy on the power spectrum through the Erickcek-Kamionkowski-Carroll mechanism.

In this paper we analyze the resolvent, the heat kernel and the spectral zeta function of the operator −d2∕dr2−1∕(4r2) over the finite interval. The structural properties of these spectral functions depend strongly on the chosen self-adjoint realization of the operator, a choice being made necessary because of the singular potential present. Only for the Friedrichs realization standard properties are reproduced, for all other realizations highly nonstandard properties are observed. In particular, for k∊N we find terms like (logt)−k in the small-t asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel. Furthermore, the zeta function has s=0 as a logarithmic branch point.

Following the seminal works of Asorey–Ibort–Marmo and Muñoz–Castañeda–Asorey about selfadjoint extensions and quantum fields in bounded domains, we compute all the heat kernel coefficients for any strongly consistent selfadjoint extension of the Laplace operator over the finite line [0, L]. The derivative of the corresponding spectral zeta function at s = 0 (partition function of the corresponding quantum field theory) is obtained. To compute the correct expression for the a _1/2 heat kernel coefficient, it is necessary to know in detail which non-negative selfadjoint extensions have zero modes and how many of them they have. The answer to this question leads us to analyze zeta function properties for the Von Neumann–Krein extension, the only extension with two zero modes.