Related papers: Analogue spacetimes: Toy models for "quantum gravi…
While quantum field theory could more aptly be called the "quantum field framework" $-$ as it encompasses a vast variety of varying concepts and theories $-$ in comparison, relativity, both special and general, is more commonly portrayed as…
So called "analogue models" use condensed matter systems (typically hydrodynamic) to set up an "effective metric" and to model curved-space quantum field theory in a physical system where all the microscopic degrees of freedom are well…
We discuss the possibility that spacetime geometry may be an emergent phenomenon. This idea has been motivated by the Analogue Gravity programme. These are systems where the kinematics of small perturbations are dominated by an effective…
Emergent gravity views spacetime as an entity emergent from a more complete theory of interacting fundamental constituents valid at much finer resolution or higher energies, usually assumed to be above the Planck energy. In this view…
We present a toy model where spacetime is emergent from a more fundamental microscopic system, and investigate the gray area interpolating between the collective and free-particle regimes. For a period of rapid exponential growth in the…
Taking the principles of quantum mechanics as they stand and applying them to gravity, leads to the conclusion that one might be able to generate superpositions of spacetimes, at least formally. We analyze such a possibility from an…
We consider a model of Quantum Gravity phenomenology, based on the idea that space-time may have some unknown granular structure that respects the Lorentz symmetry. The proposal involves non-trivial couplings of curvature to matter fields…
Analogue gravity is based on a mathematical identity between quantum field theory in curved space-time and the propagation of perturbations in certain condensed matter systems. But not every curved space-time can be simulated in such a way,…
Typically, a less fundamental theory, or structure, emerging from a more fundamental one is an example of synchronic emergence. A model (and the physical state it describes) emerging from a prior model (state) upon which it nevertheless…
Strategies intended to resolve the problem of time in quantum gravity by means of emergent or hidden timefunctions are considered in the arena of relational particle toy models. In situations with `heavy' and `light' degrees of freedom, two…
I discuss some theoretical ideas concerning the representation of quantum gravity as a Lorentz-symmetry-violating `medium' with non-trivial optical properties, which include a refractive index in `vacuo' and stochastic effects associated…
There is a possibility that spacetime itself is ultimately an emergent phenomenon, a near-universal "low-energy long-distance approximation", similar to the way in which fluid mechanics is the near-universal low-energy long-distance…
Analogue gravity is a research programme that explores analogues of general relativistic gravitational fields within other physical systems, particularly but not exclusively in condensed matter systems, with the aim of gaining new insights…
Quantum gravity is understood as a theory that, in some sense, unifies general relativity (GR) and quantum theory, and is supposed to replace GR at extremely small distances (high-energies). It may be that quantum gravity represents the…
In recent years several ideas for experimental searches of effects induced by quantum properties of space-time have been discussed. Some of these ideas concern the role in quantum spacetime of the ordinary Lorentz symmetry of classical flat…
We describe a refined version of a previous proposal for the exploration of quantum gravity phenomenology. Unlike the original scheme, the one presented here is free from sign ambiguities while it shares with the previous one the essential…
Condensed matter systems, such as acoustics in flowing fluids, light in moving dielectrics, or quasiparticles in a moving superfluid, can be used to mimic aspects of general relativity. More precisely these systems (and others) provide…
Analogue models of gravity have played a pivotal role in the past years by providing a test bench for many open issues in quantum field theory in curved spacetime such as the robustness of Hawking radiation and cosmological particle…
The incompatibility between GR and QM is generally seen as a sufficient motivation for the development of a theory of Quantum Gravity. If - so a typical argumentation - QM gives a universally valid basis for the description of all natural…
The present thesis deals with some properties of classical and quantum scalar fields in an inhomogeneous and/or time-dependent background, focusing on models where the latter can be described as a curved space-time with an event horizon.…