English

Classical Scale of Quantum Gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-11-10 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Characteristic length scale of the post-Newtonian corrections to the gravitational field of a body is given by its gravitational radius r_g. The role of this scale in quantum domain is discussed in the context of the low-energy effective theory. The question of whether quantum gravity effects appear already at r_g leads to the question of correspondence between classical and quantum theories, which in turn can be unambiguously resolved considering the issue of general covariance. The O(\hbar^0) loop contributions turn out to violate the principle of general covariance, thus revealing their essentially quantum nature. The violation is O(1/N), where N is the number of particles in the body. This leads naturally to a macroscopic formulation of the correspondence principle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0305166,
  title  = {Classical Scale of Quantum Gravity},
  author = {Kirill A. Kazakov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0305166},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

This essay received an "honorable mention" in the 2003 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation