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Gravity stands out among the fundamental interactions because of its apparent incompatibility with having a quantum description. Moreover, thermodynamic aspects of gravitation theory appears as puzzling features of some classical solutions…
A introductory review to emergent noncommutative gravity within Yang-Mills Matrix models is presented. Space-time is described as a noncommutative brane solution of the matrix model, i.e. as submanifold of \R^D. Fields and matter on the…
In this paper we discuss Internal Relativity, a recent program to address the problem of quantum gravity. In our approach we change the relationship between spacetime and matter. Currently we view matter as propagating on spacetime.…
Non-perturbative approaches to quantum gravity call for a deep understanding of the emergence of geometry and locality from the quantum state of the gravitational field. Without background geometry, the notion of distance should entirely…
We offer a perspective on some recent results obtained in the context of the group field theory approach to quantum gravity, on top of reviewing them briefly. These concern a natural mechanism for the emergence of non-commutative field…
For more than 80 years theoretical physicists have been trying to develop a theory of quantum gravity which would successfully combine the tenets of Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) together with those of quantum field theory.…
The two surprising features of gravity are (a) the principle of equivalence and (b) the connection between gravity and thermodynamics. Using principle of equivalence and special relativity in the {\it local inertial frame}, one could obtain…
Interactions with ordinary matter of a flux of high-speed uncharged dark matter particles pervasively present in space are examined. In this model, we find that the property of matter that we designate as mass becomes a measure of the…
Familiar textbook quantum mechanics assumes a fixed background spacetime to define states on spacelike surfaces and their unitary evolution between them. Quantum theory has changed as our conceptions of space and time have evolved. But…
This thesis is situated within the context of quantum gravity, broadly understood as any effort to explore the interplay between gravitation and the quantum realm, without necessarily requiring the quantization of the gravitational field…
Quantum Graphity is an approach to quantum gravity based on a background independent formulation of condensed matter systems on graphs. We summarize recent results obtained on the notion of emergent geometry from the point of view of a…
In this article the geometry of quantum gravity is quantized in the sense of being noncommutative (first quantization) but it is also quantized in the sense of being emergent (second quantization). A new mechanism for quantum geometry is…
It is widely hoped that quantum gravity will shed light on the question of the origin of time in physics. The currently dominant approaches to a candidate quantum theory of gravity have naturally evolved from general relativity, on the one…
There are many examples where geometry and gravity are concepts that emerge from a theory of quantum mechanics without gravity. This suggests thinking of gravity as an exotic phase of matter. Quantifying this phase in the Landau paradigm…
A possible way out of the conundrum of quantum gravity is the proposal that general relativity (GR) is not a fundamental theory but emerges from an underlying microscopic description. Despite recent interest in the emergent gravity program…
We propose a mathematically concrete way of modelling the suggestion that in quantum gravity the spacetime disappears, replacing it with a discrete approximation to the causal path space described as an object in a model category. One of…
We investigate the cosmological implications of modified gravities induced by the quantum fluctuations of the gravitational metric. If the metric can be decomposed as the sum of the classical and of a fluctuating part, of quantum origin,…
Since the advent of quantum mechanics we have mainly been concerned with its predictions from the perspective of an external observer. This is in strong contrast to the theory of general relativity, where the physics is governed by the…
Loop quantum gravity, a non-perturbative and manifestly background free, quantum theory of gravity implies that at the kinematical level the spatial geometry is discrete in a specific sense. The spirit of background independence also…
Numerous approaches to a quantum theory of gravity posit fundamental ontologies that exclude spacetime, either partially or wholly. This situation raises deep questions about how such theories could relate to the empirical realm, since…