Quantum cosmology of Eddington-Born-Infeld gravity fed by a scalar field: The big rip case

We study the quantum avoidance of the big rip singularity in the Eddington-inspired-Born-Infeld (EiBI) phantom model. Instead of considering a simple phantom dark energy component, which is described by a perfect fluid, we consider a more fundamental degree of freedom corresponding to a phantom scalar field with its corresponding potential, which would lead the classical universe to a big rip singularity. We apply a quantum geometrodynamical approach by performing an appropriate Hamiltonian study including an analysis of the constraints of the system. We then derive the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation and see whether the solutions to the WDW equation satisfy the DeWitt boundary condition. We find that by using a suitable Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation, whose validity is proven, the DeWitt condition is satisfied. Therefore, the big rip singularity is expected to be avoided in the quantum realm. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.