Related papers: Background Independence, Diffeomorphism Invariance…
This paper answers examines the relationship between Diffeomorphism Invariance and Background Independence. First, a review of the relationship between Background Independence, General Relativity (GR) and pre-GR theories are given. Then, a…
We consider two concepts often discussed as significant features of general relativity (particularly when contrasted with the other forces of the Standard Model): background independence and diffeomorphism invariance. We remind the reader…
It is generally believed that a full-fledged theory of quantum gravity should exhibit background independence and diffeomorphism invariance. In its most general form, the latter comprises field redefinitions, which are diffeomorphisms in…
Intuitively speaking, a classical field theory is background-independent if the structure required to make sense of its equations is itself subject to dynamical evolution, rather than being imposed ab initio. The aim of this paper is to…
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…
Gravitational theories with fixed background fields break diffeomorphism invariance. This breaking can be spontaneous or explicit. A brief summary of the main consequences of these types of breaking is presented.
Diffeomorphism invariance is often considered to be a hallmark of the theory of general relativity (GR). But closer analysis reveals that this cannot be what makes GR distinctive. The concept of diffeomorphism invariance can be defined in…
The aim of this paper is to explain carefully the arguments behind the assertion that the correct quantum theory of gravity must be background independent. We begin by recounting how the debate over whether quantum gravity must be…
Diffeomorphism invariance is a feature that gets sometimes highlighted as something with profound implications in the physics of spacetime. Moreover, it is often wrongly associated exclusively with General Relativity. The fact that…
We discuss the meaning of background independence in quantum theories of gravity where geometry and gravity are emergent and illustrate the possibilities using the framework of quantum causal histories.
This paper concerns what Background Independence itself is (as opposed to some particular physical theory that is background independent). The notions presented mostly arose from a layer-by-layer analysis of the facets of the Problem of…
Background independence is often emphasized as an important property of a quantum theory of gravity that takes seriously the geometrical nature of general relativity. In a background-independent formulation, quantum gravity should determine…
Classical field theory is insensitive to the split of the field into a background configuration and a dynamical perturbation. In gauge theories, the situation is complicated by the fact that a covariant (w.r.t. the background field) gauge…
I discuss various aspects of background independence in the context of string theory, for which so far we have no manifestly background independent formulation. After reviewing the role of background independence in classical Einstein…
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…
In this paper we provide a theoretical analysis of counterfactual invariance. We present a variety of existing definitions, study how they relate to each other and what their graphical implications are. We then turn to the current major…
The paper presents a metaphysical characterization of spatiotemporal backgrounds from a realist perspective. The conceptual analysis is based on a heuristic sketch that encompasses the common formal traits of the major spacetime theories,…
We propose a definition for background (in)/dependence in dynamical theories of the evolution of configurations that have a continuous symmetry and test this definition on particle models and on gravity. Our definition draws from Barbour's…
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 argue that the demand of background independence in a quantum theory of gravity calls for an extension of standard geometric quantum mechanics. We discuss a possible kinematical and dynamical generalization of the latter by way of a…