Related papers: Quantum singularities in static and conformally st…
Quantum gravity is expected to be necessary in order to understand situations where classical general relativity breaks down. In particular in cosmology one has to deal with initial singularities, i.e. the fact that the backward evolution…
A set of diverse but mutually consistent results obtained in different settings has spawned a new view of loop quantum gravity and its physical implications, based on the interplay of operator calculations and effective theory: Quantum…
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…
In this note, we attempt to provide some insights into the structure of non-perturbative descriptions of quantum gravity using known examples of gauge-theory / gravity duality. We argue that in familiar examples, a quantum description of…
Although there is general agreement that a removal of classical gravitational singularities is not only a crucial conceptual test of any approach to quantum gravity but also a prerequisite for any fundamental theory, the precise criteria…
Via elementary examples it is demonstrated that the singularities of classical physics (sampled by the Big Bang in cosmology) need not necessarily get smeared out after quantization. It is proposed that the role of quantum singularities can…
We formulate quantum mechanics in spacetimes with real-order fractional geometry and more general factorizable measures. In spacetimes where coordinates and momenta span the whole real line, Heisenberg's principle is proven and the…
In ordinary, non-relativistic, quantum physics, time enters only as a parameter and not as an observable: a state of a physical system is specified at a given time and then evolved according to the prescribed dynamics. While the state can,…
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…
Levi-Civita spacetimes have classical naked singularities. They also have quantum singularities. Quantum singularities in general relativistic spacetimes are determined by the behavior of quantum test particles. A static spacetime is said…
Key issues of classical and quantum strings in gravitational plane waves, shock waves and spacetime singularities are synthetically understood. This includes the string mass and mode number excitations, energy-momentum tensor, scattering…
Relativistic quantum theories are usually thought of as being quantum field theories, but this is not the only possibility. Here we consider relativistic quantum theories with a fixed number of particles that interact neither through…
The geometry of the classical phase space C of a finite number of degrees of freedom determines the possible duality symmetries of the corresponding quantum mechanics. Under duality we understand the relativity of the notion of a quantum…
General relativity allows a variety of future singularities to occur in the evolution of the universe. At these future singularities, the universe will end in a singular state after a finite proper time and geometrical invariants of the…
The physical world is quantum. However, our description of the quantum physics still relies much on concepts in classical physics and in some cases with `quantized' interpretations. The most important case example is that of spacetime. We…
We discuss the question of time in a Bianchi I quantum cosmology in the framework of singularity avoidance. We show that time parameters fall into two distinct classes, that are such that the time development of the wave function either…
In this work, we present an overview of uniqueness results derived in recent years for the quantization of Gowdy cosmological models and for (test) Klein-Gordon fields minimally coupled to Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker, de…
The conical singularity in flat spacetime is mostly known as a model of the cosmic string or the wedge disclination in solids. Its another, equally important, function is to be a representative of quasiregular singularities. From all these…
The concept of a particle is ambiguous in quantum field theory. It is generally agreed that particles depend not only on spacetime, but also on coordinates used to parametrise spacetime points. One of us has in contrast proposed a…
Quantization is performed of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe filled with a conformally invariant scalar field and a perfect fluid with equation of state $p=\alpha \rho$. A well-known discrete set of static quantum wormholes is shown…