The aim of this article is twofold. First we examine from a new angle the
question of recovery of time in quantum cosmology. We construct Green functions
for matter fields from the solutions of the Wheeler De Witt equation. For
simplicity we work in a mini-superspace context. By evaluating these Green
functions in a first order development of the energy ``increment'' induced by
matrix elements of field operators, we show that the background geometry is the
solution of Einstein equations driven by the mean matter energy and that it is
this background which determines the time lapses separating the field
operators. Then, by studying higher order corrections, we clarify the nature of
the small dimensionless parameters which guarantee the validity of the
approximations used. In this respect, we show that the formal expansion in the
inverse Planck mass which is sometime presented as the ``standard procedure''
is illegitimate. Secondly, by the present analysis of Green functions, we
prepare the study of quantum matter transitions in quantum cosmology. In a next
article, we show that the time parametrization of transition amplitudes appears
for the same reasons that it appeared in this article. This proves that the
background is dynamically determined by the transition under examination.Comment: 25 pages, latex, no figure