Foundations of space and time : reflections on quantum gravity

✍ Scribed by Weltman, Amanda; Ellis, George Francis Rayner; Murugan, Jeff (eds)

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 452
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

After almost a century, the field of quantum gravity remains as difficult and inspiring as ever. Today, it finds itself a field divided, with two major contenders dominating: string theory, the leading exemplification of the covariant quantization program; and loop quantum gravity, the canonical scheme based on Dirac's constrained Hamiltonian quantization. However, there are now a number of other innovative schemes providing promising new avenues. Encapsulating the latest debates on this topic, this book details the different approaches to understanding the very nature of space and time. It brings together leading researchers in each of these approaches to quantum gravity to explore these competing possibilities in an open way. Its comprehensive coverage explores all the current approaches to solving the problem of quantum gravity, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, to give researchers and graduate students an up-to-date view of the field

✦ Table of Contents

Content: 1. The problem with quantum gravity / Jeff Murugan, Amanda Weltman & George F.R. Eliis --
2. A dialogue on the nature of gravity / T. Padmanabhan --
3. Effective theories and modifications of gravity / C.P. Burgess --
4. The small-scale structure of spacetime / Steve Carlip --
5. Ultraviolet divergences in supersymmetric theories / Kellog Stelle --
6. Cosmological quantum billiards / Axel Kleinschmidt & Hermann Nicolai --
7. Progress in RNS string theory and pure spinors / Dimitri Polyakov --
8. Recent trends in superstring phenomenology / Massimo Bianchi --
9. Emergent spacetime / Robert de Mello Koch & Jeff Murugan --
10. Loop quantum gravity / Hanno Sahlmann --
11. Loop quantum gravity and cosmology / Martin Bojowald --
12. The microscopic dynamics of quantum space as a group field theory / Daniele Oriti --
13. Causal dynamical triangulations and the quest for quantum gravity / J. Ambjørn, J. Jurkiewicz & R. Loll --
14. Proper time is stochastic time in 2D quantum gravity / J. Ambjorn, R. Loll, Y. Watabiki, W. Westra & S. Zohren --
15. Logic is to the quantum as geometry is to gravity / Rafael Sorkin --
16. Causal sets: discreteness without symmetry breaking / Joe Henson --
17. The Big Bang, quantum gravity, and black-hole information loss / Roger Penrose --
18. Conversations in string theory / Amanda Weltman, Jeff Murugan & George F.R. Ellis.