Related papers: Background-Independence
The main limitations of string field theory arise because its present formulation requires a background representing a classical solution, a background defined by a strictly conformally invariant theory. Here we sketch a construction for a…
One of the many conceptual difficulties in the development of quantum gravity is the role of a background geometry for the structure of quantum field theory. To some extent the problem can be solved by the principle of local covariance. The…
Classical integrability is investigated for affine Toda field theories in the presence of a constant background tensor field. This leads to a further set of discrete possibilities for integrable boundary conditions depending upon the…
The history of general relativity suggests that in absence of experimental data, constructing a theory on philosophical first principles can lead to a very useful theory as well as to ground-breaking insights about physical reality. The two…
Structural independence is the (conditional) independence that arises from the structure rather than the precise numerical values of a distribution. We develop this concept and relate it to $d$-separation and structural causal models.…
We describe the definition and the role background independence and the closely related notion of diffeomorphism invariance play in modern string theory. These important concepts are transformed by a new understanding of gauge redundancies…
This elementary introduction to string field theory highlights the features and the limitations of this approach to quantum gravity as it is currently understood. String field theory is a formulation of string theory as a field theory in…
In this note, we describe how the study of backgrounds for general quantum systems can be formulated in terms of the representation theory of abstract $C^*$ algebras. We illustrate our general framework through two example systems:…
I argue that background freedom in quantum gravity automatically leads to a dissociation of the quantum state into states having a classical space. That is, interference is not completely well-defined for states with different space…
The problems with background independence are discussed in the example of open string theory. Based on the recent proposal by Witten I calculate the String Field Theory action in conformal perturbation theory to second order and demonstrate…
One of the key ways in which quantum mechanics differs from relativity is that it requires a fixed background reference frame for spacetime. In fact, this appears to be one of the main conceptual obstacles to uniting the two theories.…
We show that after the Seiberg-Witten map is performed the action for noncommutative field theories can be regarded as a coupling to a field dependent gravitational background. This gravitational background depends only on the gauge field.…
The use of effective field theory offers a systematic way to improve calculations of nuclear reactions and the properties of atomic nuclei. Its successes have led to the widespread belief that the predictions of this approach are model…
We explore a background-independent theory of composite gravity. The vacuum expectation value of the composite metric satisfies Einstein's equations (with corrections) as a consistency condition, and selects the vacuum spacetime. A…
For every natural number $m$, the existentially closed models of the theory of fields with $m$ commuting derivations can be given a first-order geometric characterization in several ways. In particular, the theory of these differential…
We study the role of closed string backgrounds in boundary string field theory. Background independence requires the introduction of dual boundary fields, which are reminiscent of the doubled field formalism. We find a correspondence…
String geometry theory is a candidate of the non-perturbative formulation of string theory. In order to determine the string vacuum, we need to clarify how string backgrounds are described in string geometry theory. In this paper, we show…
We prove local background independence of the complete quantum closed string field theory using the recursion relations for string vertices and the existence of connections in CFT theory space. Indeed, with this data we construct an…
The independence of the continuum hypothesis is a result of broad impact: it settles a basic question regarding the nature of N and R, two of the most familiar mathematical structures; it introduces the method of forcing that has become the…
It is shown that background fields of a topological character usually introduced as such in compactified string theories correspond to quantum degrees of freedom which parametrise the freedom in choosing a representation of the zero mode…