LAUSR

The authors previously introduced a diffeomorphism-invariant definition of a homogeneous and isotropic sector of loop quantum gravity, along with a program to embed loop quantum cosmology into it. The present paper works out that program in detail for the simpler, but still physically non-trivial, case where the target of the embedding is the homogeneous, but not isotropic, Bianchi I model. The diffeomorphisminvariant conditions imposing homogeneity and isotropy in the full theory reduce to conditions imposing isotropy on an already homogeneous Bianchi I spacetime. The reduced conditions are invariant under the residual diffeomorphisms still allowed after gauge fixing the Bianchi I model. We show that there is a unique embedding of the quantum isotropic model into the homogeneous quantum Bianchi I model that (a) is covariant with respect to the actions of such residual diffeomorphisms, and (b) intertwines both the (signed) volume operator and at least one directional Hubble rate. That embedding also intertwines all other operators of interest in the respective loop quantum cosmological models, including their Hamiltonian constraints. It thus establishes a precise equivalence between dynamics in the isotropic sector of the Bianchi I model and the quantized isotropic model, and not just their kinematics. We also discuss the adjoint relationship between the embedding map defined here and a projection map previously defined by Ashtekar and Wilson-Ewing. Finally, we highlight certain features that simplify this reduced embedding problem, but which may not have direct analogues in the embedding of homogeneous and isotropic loop quantum cosmology into the full theory of general relativity.