Symmetries,Singularities and the De-Emergence of Space
High Energy Physics - Theory
2009-11-13 v1
Abstract
Recent work has revealed intriguing connections between a Belinsky-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz-type analysis of spacelike singularities in General Relativity and certain infinite dimensional Lie algebras, and in particular the `maximally extended' hyperbolic Kac--Moody algebra E10. In this essay we argue that these results may lead to an entirely new understanding of the (quantum) nature of space(-time) at the Planck scale, and hence -- via an effective `de-emergence' of space near a singularity -- to a novel mechanism for achieving background independence in quantum gravity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.2643,
title = {Symmetries,Singularities and the De-Emergence of Space},
author = {Thibault Damour and Hermann Nicolai},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.2643},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages