Related papers: Spacetime foam
Due to quantum fluctuations, spacetime is foamy on small scales. The degree of foaminess is found to be consistent with the holographic principle. One way to detect spacetime foam is to look for halos in the images of distant quasars.…
The aim of this review is to outline a full route from the fundamental principles of algebraic quantum field theory on curved spacetime in its present-day form to explicit phenomenological applications which allow for comparison with…
Any approach to pure quantum gravity must eventually face the question of coupling quantum matter to the theory. In the past, several ways of coupling matter to spin foam quantum gravity have been proposed, but the dynamics of the coupled…
A model of space-time foam, made by $N$ wormholes is considered. The Casimir energy leading to such a model is computed by means of the phase shift method which is in agreement with the variational approach used in Refs.[9-14]. The…
We describe how a spin-foam state sum model can be reformulated as a quantum field theory of spin networks, such that the Feynman diagrams of that field theory are the spin-foam amplitudes. In the case of open spin networks, we obtain a new…
In this article we review the present status of the spin foam formulation of non-perturbative (background independent) quantum gravity. The article is divided in two parts. In the first part we present a general introduction to the main…
We discuss the notion of causality in Quantum Gravity in the context of sum-over-histories approaches, in the absence therefore of any background time parameter. In the spin foam formulation of Quantum Gravity, we identify the appropriate…
It has been shown that if one solves self-consistently the semiclassical Einstein equations in the presence of a quantum scalar field, with a cutoff on the number of modes, spacetime become flatter when the cutoff increases. Here we extend…
On the path towards quantum gravity, we find friction between temporal relations in quantum mechanics (QM) (where they are fixed and field-independent), and in general relativity (where they are field-dependent and dynamic). This paper aims…
The alternative dynamics of loop quantum cosmology is examined by the path integral formulation. We consider the spatially flat FRW models with a massless scalar field, where the alternative quantization inherit more features from full loop…
The problem of background independent quantum gravity is the problem of defining a quantum field theory of matter and gravity in the absence of an underlying background geometry. Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a promising proposal for…
We consider the approach to gravity in which four-dimensional curved spacetime is represented by a surface in a flat Minkowski space of higher dimension. After a short overview of the ideas and results of such an approach we concentrate on…
Quantum field theory is the traditional solution to the problems inherent in melding quantum mechanics with special relativity. However, it has also long been known that an alternative first-quantized formulation can be given for…
We provide a minimal, self-contained introduction to the covariant DFR flat quantum spacetime, and to some partial results for the corresponding quantum field theory. Explicit equations are given in the Dirac notation.
Efforts to give an improved mathematical meaning to Feynman's path integral formulation of quantum mechanics started soon after its introduction and continue to this day. In the present paper, one common thread of development is followed…
A simple model of spacetime foam, made by N wormholes in a semiclassical approximation, is taken under examination. The Casimir-like energy of the quantum fluctuation of such a model and its probability of being realized are computed.…
Feynman's sum-over-histories formulation of quantum mechanics is reviewed as an independent statement of quantum theory in spacetime form. It is different from the usual Schr\"odinger-Heisenberg formulation that utilizes states on spacelike…
The aim of these notes is to elucidate some aspects of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, especially those relating to the notion of particles. A selection of issues relevant to wave-particle duality is given. The case of a generic…
We perform a foliation of a four dimensional Riemannian space-time with respect to a discrete time which is an integer multiple of the Planck time. We find that the quantum fluctuations of the metric have a discrete energy spectrum. The…
The expectation that it should not be possible to gain experimental insight on the structure of space-time at Planckian distance scales has been recently challenged by several studies. With respect to space-time fluctuations, one of the…