Anomaly freedom in effective loop quantum cosmology: Pedagogical summary and generalized holonomy corrections

The issue of consistency is crucial in quantum gravity. It has recently been intensively addressed for effective symmetry-reduced models. In this article, we exhaustively study the anomaly freedom of effective loop quantum cosmology with generalized holonomy corrections, considering loop correction of the constraints at the perturbative order. We pedagogically explain why, although the holonomy correction---including the details of the chosen scheme---applied on the background part of the constraints is crucial, it becomes irrelevant when implemented on perturbative expansions, in the sense that all consequences are ``absorbed'' in the counter-terms used for the regularization. The corrected terms do not appear in the Hamiltonian of the perturbations. The possibility of closing the algebra of constraints without counter-terms is also studied. It is argued that, although enforcing a first-class algebra is a strong requirement, this can be achieved in several different ways, often overlooked, which generates ambiguities on the restriction of the form of the generalized holonomy correction. Those ambiguities are examined in detail, leading to the conclusion that the consistency of the effective theory for cosmological perturbations, especially when considering scalar modes, cannot be achieved without counter-terms. We also take the opportunity in this work to clarify, as much as possible, all the required steps so that future works have a clear material at disposal. In particular, a highly detailed calculation of all the brackets is provided, emphasizing the (usually implicit) assumptions, hypotheses, and manipulations required to ensure the closure of the algebra. Prospects for future works are underlined.