Title: Measuring the effects of Loop Quantum Cosmology in the CMB data,
Abstract: In this Essay we investigate the observational signatures of Loop Quantum
Cosmology (LQC) in the CMB data. First, we concentrate on the dynamics of LQC
and we provide the basic cosmological functions. We then obtain the power
spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations in order to study the performance
of LQC against the latest CMB data. We find that LQC provides a robust
prediction for the main slow-roll parameters, like the scalar spectral index
and the tensor-to-scalar fluctuation ratio, which are in excellent agreement
within $1\sigma$ with the values recently measured by the Planck collaboration.
This result indicates that LQC can be seen as an alternative scenario with
respect to that of standard inflation.