Related papers: Thermal dimension of quantum spacetime
Over the past few years, evidence has begun to accumulate suggesting that spacetime may undergo a "spontaneous dimensional reduction" to two dimensions near the Planck scale. I review some of this evidence, and discuss the (still very…
The theory of quantum thermodynamics investigates how the concepts of heat, work, and temperature can be carried over to the quantum realm, where fluctuations and randomness are fundamentally unavoidable. Of particular practical relevance…
Any acceptable quantum gravity theory must allow us to recover the classical spacetime in the appropriate limit. Moreover, the spacetime geometrical notions should be intrinsically tied to the behavior of the matter that probes them. We…
Thermodynamics provides a useful interpretation of scalar-tensor gravity, in which the effective imperfect fluid admitted by the nonminimal coupling features a temperature that is associated with the departure from general relativity.…
The procedure of the dimensional reduction related to the partition function of a quantum field living in curved space-time which is the warp product of a symmetric space is investigated.
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…
It is argued that the dynamics of an isolated system, due to the concrete procedure by which it is separated from the environment, has a non-Hamiltonian contribution. By a unified quantum field theoretical treatment of typical subdynamics,…
The well-known formal analogy between time and absolute temperature, existing on the quantum level, is considered as a profound duality relationship requiring some modifications in the conventional quantum dynamics. They consist of tiny…
After recalling the concept of the Hausdorff dimension, we study the fractal properties of a quantum particle path. As a novelty we consider the possibility for the space where the particle propagates to be endowed with a…
The physics of quantum gravity is discussed within the framework of topological quantum field theory. Some of the principles are illustrated with examples taken from theories in which space-time is three dimensional.
By quantising the gravitational dynamics, space and time are usually forced to play fundamentally different roles. This raises the question whether physically relevent configurations could also exist which would not admit…
Dynamical properties of a generic null surface are known to have a thermodynamic interpretation. Such an interpretation is completely based on an analogy between the usual law of thermodynamics and structure of gravitational field equation…
The trace of the heat kernel in a (D+1)-dimensional Euclidean spacetime (integer D > 1) is used to derive the free energy in finite temperature field theory. The spacetime presents a D-dimensional compact space (domain) with a…
We consider blocks of quantum spins in a chain at thermal equilibrium, focusing on their properties from a thermodynamical perspective. Whereas in classical systems the temperature behaves as an intensive magnitude, a deviation from this…
The thermodynamics of local causal horizons has been shown to imply gravitational dynamics. In this essay, we discuss the principles underlying this observation, and its significance in our understanding of (quantum) gravity. We also show…
In a recent trilogy we proposed a Statistical Theory of General Relativity spacetime. Here we apply our new theory to determine the (energy) ``density'' and (virial) ``temperature'' dependence of the structure of the spacetime quantum…
We show that when the thermal wavelength is comparable to the spatial size of a system, thermodynamic observables like Pressure and Volume have quantum fluctuations that cannot be ignored. They are now represented by operators; conventional…
A satisfactory theory of quantum gravity may necessitate a drastic modification of our perception of space-time, by giving it a foamy structure at distances comparable to the Planck length. It is argued in this essay that the experimental…
A profound quantum-gravitational effect of space-time dimension running with respect to the size of space-time region has been discovered a few years ago through the numerical simulations of lattice quantum gravity in the framework of…
Quantum thermodynamics aims at extending standard thermodynamics and non-equilibrium statistical physics to systems with sizes well below the thermodynamic limit. A rapidly evolving research field, which promises to change our understanding…