Related papers: The relation between Geometry and Matter in classi…
We review some aspects of quantum gravity in the context of cosmology. In particular, we focus on models with a phenomenology accessible to current and near-future observations, as the early Universe might be our only chance to peep through…
Spin Foam and Loop approaches to Quantum Gravity reformulate Einstein's theory of relativity in terms of connection variables. The metric properties are encoded in face bivectors/conjugate fluxes that are required to satisfy certain…
We study the coupling of massive fermions to the quantum mechanical dynamics of spacetime emerging from the spinfoam approach in three dimensions. We first recall the classical theory before constructing a spinfoam model of quantum gravity…
Quantum Reduced Loop Gravity is a promising framework for linking Loop Quantum Gravity and the effective semiclassical dynamics of Loop Quantum Cosmology. We review its basic achievements and its main perspectives, outlining how it provides…
In the quest of a physical theory of quantum gravity, spin foam models, or in short spinfoams, propose a well-defined path integral summing over quantized discrete space-time geometries. At the crossroad of topological quantum field theory,…
In general relativity (GR), spacetime geometry is no longer just a background arena but a physical and dynamical entity with its own degrees of freedom. We present an overview of approaches to quantum gravity in which this central feature…
The basic problem of quantum cosmology is the definition of the quantum state of the universe, with appropriate boundary conditions on Riemannian three-geometries. This paper describes recent progress in the corresponding analysis of…
Loop quantum cosmology is an application of recent developments for a non-perturbative and background independent quantization of gravity to a cosmological setting. Characteristic properties of the quantization such as discreteness of…
We introduce a new framework for loop quantum gravity: mimicking the spinfoam quantization procedure we propose to study the symmetric sectors of the theory imposing the reduction weakly on the full kinematical Hilbert space of the…
This is a review of the aspirations and disappointments of the canonical quantization of geometry. I compare the two chief ways of looking at canonical gravity, geometrodynamics and connection dynamics. I capture as much of the classical…
This article will summarize selected aspects of the semiclassical theory of gravity, which involves a classical gravitational field coupled to quantum matter fields. Among the issues which will be discussed are the role of quantum effects…
A crucial problem in quantum cosmology is a careful analysis of the one-loop semiclassical approximation for the wave function of the universe, after an appropriate choice of mixed boundary conditions. The results for Euclidean quantum…
It is argued that quantum gravity has an interpretation as a topological field theory provided a certain constraint from the path intergral measure is respected. The constraint forces us to couple gauge and matter fields to gravity for…
We study homogenous and isotropic quantum cosmology using the spinfoam formalism of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). We define a coupling of a scalar field to the 4-dimensional Lorentzian Engle-Pereira-Rovelli-Livine (EPRL) spinfoam model. We…
Spinfoams provide a framework for the dynamics of loop quantum gravity that is manifestly covariant under the full four-dimensional diffeomorphism symmetry group of general relativity. In this way they complete the ideal of…
These lectures briefly review our current understanding of classical and quantum gravity in three spacetime dimensions, concentrating on the quantum mechanics of closed universes and the (2+1)-dimensional black hole. Three formulations of…
In this thesis, we study the implications of Quantum Gravity models for the dynamics of spacetime and the ensuing departures from classical General Relativity. The main focus is on cosmological applications, particularly the impact of…
Some results of author's work in a non-geometrical approach to quantum gravity are reviewed here, among them: a quantum mechanism of classical gravity giving a possibility to compute the Newton constant; asymptotic freedom at short…
"Quantum Topology" deals with the general quantum theory as the theory of the functional quantum space; space time and energy momentum forms form a connected manifold; a functional quantum space on the quantum level. The general quantum…
This introductory review is addressed to beginning researchers. Some of the distinguishing features of loop quantum gravity are illustrated through loop quantum cosmology of FRW models. In particular, these examples illustrate: i) how…