If the basic representation is taken from the full quantization, one makes sure that many consistency conditions of quantum gravity are already observed. This can never be guaranteed when classically reduced models are quantized since then many consistency conditions trivialize as a consequence of simplifications in the model. In particular, background independence requires special properties, as emphasized before. A symmetric model, however, always incorporates a partial background and, within a model alone, one cannot determine which structures are required for background independence. In loop quantum cosmology, on the other hand, this is realized thanks to the link to the full theory. Even though a model in loop quantum cosmology can also be seen as obtained by a particular minisuperspace quantization, it is distinguished by the fact that its representation is derived by quantizing before performing the reduction.
In general, symmetry conditions take the form of second-class constraints since they are imposed for both connections and triads. It is often said that second-class constraints always have to be solved classically before the quantization because of quantum uncertainty relations. This seems to make impossible the above statement that symmetry conditions can be imposed after quantizing. It is certainly true that there is no state in a quantum system satisfying all second class constraints of a given reduction. In addition, using distributional states, as required for first-class constraints with zero in the continuous spectrum, does not help. The reduction described above does not simply proceed in this way by finding states, normalizable or distributional, in the full quantization. Instead, the reduction is done at the operator algebra level, or, alternatively, the selection of symmetric states is accompanied by a reduction of operators which, at least for basic ones, can be performed explicitly. In general terms, one does not look for a sub-representation of the full quantum representation, but for a representation of a suitable sub-algebra of operators related to the symmetry. This gives a well-defined map from the full basic representation to a new basic representation of the model. In this map, non-symmetric degrees of freedom are removed irrespective of the uncertainty relations from the full point of view.
Since the basic representations of the full theory and the model are related, it is clear that similar
ambiguities arise in the construction of composite operators. Some of them are inherited directly, such as
the representation label one can choose when connection components are represented through
holonomies [170]. Other ambiguities are reduced in models since many choices can result in the
same form or are restricted by adaptations to the symmetry. This is, for instance, the case for
positions of new vertices created by the Hamiltonian constraint. However, new ambiguities can also
arise from degeneracies, such as that between spin labels and edge lengths resulting in the
parameter
in Section 5.4. Factor ordering can also appear more ambiguously in a model and
lead to less unique operators than in the full theory. As a simple example we can consider a
system with two degrees of freedom
constrained to be equal to each other:
,
. In the unconstrained plane
, angular momentum is
given by
with an unambiguous quantization. Classically,
vanishes on
the constraint surface
, but in the quantum system ambiguities arise:
and
commute before but not after reduction. There is thus a factor-ordering ambiguity in the
reduction, which is absent in the unconstrained system. Since angular momentum operators
formally appear in the volume operator of loop quantum gravity, it is not surprising that models
have additional factor-ordering ambiguities in their volume operators. Fortunately, they are
harmless and result, e.g., in differences as an isotropic volume spectrum
compared to
, where the second form [45] is closer to SU(2) as compared to U(1)
expressions.
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