SMALLEST RELATIONAL MECHANICS MODEL OF QUANTUM COSMOLOGY
Relational particle mechanics are models in which there is, overall, no time, position, orientation (nor, sometimes, scale). They are useful for whole-universe modelling - the setting for quantum cosmology. This note concerns 3 particles in 1d in shape-scale split variables. The scale part parallels certain Friedmann equations, while in this note the shape part involves functions on the circle. The scale part is taken to be ‘heavy’ and ‘slow’ so the semiclassical approach applies and scale provides an approximate timestandard with repect to which the light physics runs. Relational particle mechanics moreover provide conceptual models of inhomogeneity, structure formation and nontrivial linear constraints (minisuperspace models do not and midisuperspace models only do at the cost of substantial complications).