Related papers: Cosmological measurements, time and observables in…
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…
General relativity promotes space-time to a physical, dynamical object subject to equations of motion. Quantum gravity, accordingly, must provide a quantum framework for space-time, applicable on the smallest distance scales. Just like…
Measurements play a crucial role in doing physics: Their results provide the basis on which we adopt or reject physical theories. In this note, we examine the effect of subjecting measurements themselves to our experience. We require that…
In this paper I argue for a reassessment of special relativity. The fundamental theory of relativity applicable in this Universe has to be consistent with the existence of the massive Universe, and with the effects of its gravitational…
The framework for considering the astronomical and cosmological observations in the context of scalar-tensor quintessence in which the quintessence field also accounts for a time dependence of the gravitational constant is developed. The…
We study some aspects of classical & quantum cosmology in the context of two-dimensionsal dilaton gravity theories with matter being described by a perfect fluid. We derive the classical equations obeyed by the metric function & the dilaton…
The cosmological constant problem is principally concerned with trying to understand how the zero-point energy of quantum fields contributes to gravity. Here we take the approach that by addressing a fundamental unresolved issue in quantum…
We outline the evaluation of the cosmological constant in the framework of the standard field-theoretical treatment of vacuum energy and discuss the relation between the vacuum energy problem and the gauge-group spontaneous symmetry…
In the canonical approach to quantization of gravity, one often uses relational clock variables and an interpretation in terms of conditional probabilities to overcome the problem of time. In this essay we show that these suffer from…
We investigate, in the framework of (2+1) dimensional gravity, stationary, rotationally symmetric gravitational sources of the perfect fluid type, embedded in a space of arbitrary cosmological constant. We show that the matching conditions…
Relations between the Friedmann observables of the expanding Universe and the Dirac observables in the generalized Hamiltonian approach are established for the Friedmann cosmological model of the Universe with the field excitations…
Crucial observational tests of gravity physics are reviewed. Such tests are able to clarify the key question on the nature of gravitational interaction: is gravity the curvature of space? or is gravity a matter field in Minkowski flat space…
We investigate the problem of metric fluctuations in the presence of the vacuum fluctuations of matter fields and critically assess the usual assertion that vacuum energy implies a Planckian cosmological constant. A new stochastic classical…
Physical time intervals are attributes of single physical object whereas physical space intervals are a relational attribute of two physical objects. Some consequences of the breaking of the space-time exchange symmetry inherent in the…
One solution to the so-called problem of time is to construct certain Dirac observables, sometimes called evolving constants of motion. There has been some discussion in the literature about the interpretation of such observables, and in…
For over a century Minkowskian spacetime has dominated discussions of space contraction and time dilation within special relativity. Brown and Pooley have called into question both the assumptions of Minkowski and the effects his presumed…
This paper considers a new and deeply challenging face of the problem of time in the context of cosmology drawing on the work of Thiemann (2006, 2007). Thiemann argues for a radical response to the cosmic problem of time that requires us to…
By following the general guiding principle that nothing should be prescribed or imposed on the universal entity, spacetime, we establish that it is the homogeneity (by which we mean homogeneity and isotropy of space and homogeneity of time)…
A deformation of special relativistic kinematics (possible signal of a theory of quantum gravity at low energies) leads to a modification of the notion of spacetime. At the classical level, this modification is required when one considers a…
There are theories which implement the idea that the constants of nature may be "time dependent." These introduce new fields representing "evolving constants," in addition to physical fields. We argue that dynamical matter coupling…