Effective actions for loop quantum cosmology in fourth-order gravity

Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) is a theory which renders the Big Bang initial singularity into a quantum bounce, by means of short range repulsive quantum effects at the Planck scale. In this work, we are interested in reproducing the effective Friedmann equation of LQC, by considering a generic f(R,P,Q)theory of gravity, where R=g^{\mu\nu}R_{\mu\nu}is the Ricci scalar, P=R_{\mu\nu}R^{\mu\nu} and...