Related papers: The Small Scale Structure of Spacetime
Several lines of evidence suggest that quantum gravity at very short distances may behave effectively as a two-dimensional theory. I summarize these hints, and offer an additional argument based on the strong-coupling limit of the…
A number of very different approaches to quantum gravity contain a common thread, a hint that spacetime at very short distances becomes effectively two dimensional. I review this evidence, starting with a discussion of the physical meaning…
Hints from a number of different approaches to quantum gravity point to a phenomenon of "spontaneous dimensional reduction" to two spacetime dimensions near the Planck scale. I examine the physical meaning of the term "dimension" in this…
If gravity is asymptotically safe, operators will exhibit anomalous scaling at the ultraviolet fixed point in a way that makes the theory effectively two-dimensional. A number of independent lines of evidence, based on different approaches…
Over the past few years, evidence has begun to accumulate suggesting that spacetime may undergo a "spontaneous dimensional reduction" to two dimensions near the Planck scale. I review some of this evidence, and discuss the (still very…
Despite their diversity, many of the most prominent candidate theories of quantum gravity share the property to be effectively lower-dimensional at small scales. In particular, dimension two plays a fundamental role in the finiteness of…
We consider the quantization of space-times which can possess different topologies within a symmetry reduced version of Wheeler-DeWitt theory. The quantum states are defined from a natural decomposition as an outer-product of a topological…
Results from a number of different approaches to quantum gravity suggest that the effective dimension of spacetime may drop to $d=2$ at small scales. I show that two different dimensional estimators in causal set theory display the same…
The quantum cosmology of two-dimensional dilaton-gravity models is investigated. A class of models is mapped onto the constrained oscillator-ghost-oscillator model. A number of exact and approximate solutions to the corresponding…
We consider the minisuperspace model arising from the lowest order string effective action containing the graviton and the dilaton and study solutions of the resulting Wheeler-Dewitt equation. The scale factor duality symmetry is discussed…
We consider a renormalizable two-dimensional model of dilaton gravity coupled to a set of conformal fields as a toy model for quantum cosmology. We discuss the cosmological solutions of the model and study the effect of including the…
We study the renormalization of the Ricci curvature as an example of generally covariant operators in quantum gravity near two dimensions. We find that it scales with a definite scaling dimension at short distance. The Ricci curvature…
We give an introduction into quantum cosmology with emphasis on its conceptual parts. After a general motivation we review the formalism of canonical quantum gravity on which discussions of quantum cosmology are usually based. We then…
A viable quantum theory of gravity is one of the biggest challenges facing physicists. We discuss the confluence of two highly expected features which might be instrumental in the quest of a finite and renormalizable quantum gravity --…
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…
We show that vacuum fluctuations of the stress-energy tensor in two-dimensional dilaton gravity lead to a sharp focusing of light cones near the Planck scale, effectively breaking space up into a large number of causally disconnected…
We analyse the classical and quantum theory of a scalar field interacting with gravitation in two dimensions. We describe a class of analytic solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation from which we are able to synthesise states that give…
It is believed that gravity will be explained in the framework of the existing quantum theory when one succeeds in eliminating divergencies at large momenta or small distances (although the phenomenon of gravity has been observed only at…
We can solve the Wheeler-DeWitt equation of the small universe enough to metric becomes diagonal and take a Gaussian normal coordinate. Our previous works are concerning to this paper. In this paper, we only write how to solve the…
We employ the semiclassical approximation to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in the spatially flat de Sitter Universe to investigate the dynamics of a minimally coupled scalar field near the Planck scale. We find that, contrary to naive…