Related papers: Supergravity at 40: Reflections and Perspectives
A personal recollection of events that preceded the construction of Supergravity and of some subsequent developments.
A recollection of some theoretical developments that preceded and followed the first formulation of supergravity theory is presented. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of supergravity on the search for a unified theory of fundamental…
I summarize, at its 41st--and what would have been Bruno's 94th--birthday, the history of the discoveries of Supergravity and some of its structure and later developments.
An introduction to and a partial review of supergravity theories is given, insisting on concepts and on some important technical aspects. Topics covered include elements of global supersymmetry, a derivation of the simplest N=1 supergravity…
This contribution gives a panoramic overview of the development of N=8 supergravity and its relation to other maximally supersymmetric theories over the past 40 years. It also provides a personal perspective on the future role of this…
Following the initial construction of pure supergravity in 1976, various methods were developed to couple supergravity with supersymmetric matter. This contribution to 'Half a century of supergravity' provides a personal perspective on the…
In the first part of this lecture, some very basic ideas in supersymmetry and supergravity are presented at a level accessible to readers with modest background in quantum field theory and general relativity. The second part is an outline…
A discursive, non-technical, analysis is made of some of the basic issues that arise in almost any approach to quantum gravity, and of how these issues stand in relation to recent developments in the field. Specific topics include the…
This is a review paper invited by the journal "Classical ad Quantum Gravity" for a "Cluster Issue" on approaches to quantum gravity. I give a synthetic presentation of loop gravity. I spell-out the aims of the theory and compare the results…
This is the Preface to the special issue of 'International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics', v.3, N.1 (2006) dedicated to the 50th aniversary of gauge gravitation theory. It addresses the geometry underlying gauge gravitation…
I give an account of the discovery of supergravity and the first six years of its development which lead to the most general coupling of supergravity to matter. I restrict the discussion to theories with only one supersymmetry that are in…
This article is a partly pedagogical, partly historical and partly technical review of special relativity and its experimental foundations, in honor of the centenary of Einstein's annus mirabilis.
As quantum theory celebrates its 100th birthday, spectacular successes are mixed with outstanding puzzles and promises of new technologies. This article reviews both the successes of quantum theory and the ongoing debate about its…
We present a bird's-eye survey on the development of fundamental ideas of quantum gravity, placing emphasis on perturbative approaches, string theory, loop quantum gravity, and black hole thermodynamics. The early ideas at the dawn of…
This article is an overview of the contributions numerical relativity has made to our understanding of strong field gravity, to be published in the book "General Relativity and Gravitation: A Centennial Perspective", commemorating the 100th…
Quantum gravity is the missing piece in our understanding of the fundamental interactions today. Given recent observational breakthroughs in gravity, providing a quantum theory for what lies beyond general relativity is more urgent than…
This essay presents an accessible introduction to the basic motivations to seek a quantum theory of gravity. It focuses on one approach- loop quantum gravity - as an example of the rich philosophical issues that arise when we try to combine…
We review some material connecting gravity and the quantum potential and provide a few new observations.
I sketch the main lines of development of the research in quantum gravity, from the first explorations in the early thirties to nowadays.
Understanding the quantum aspects of gravity is not only a matter of equations and experiments. Gravity is intimately connected with the structure of space and time, and understanding quantum gravity requires us to find a conceptual…