Related papers: Null infinity, the BMS group and infrared issues
The study of gravitational waves in the presence of a cosmological constant has led to interesting forms of the de Sitter and anti-de Sitter line elements based on families of null hypersurfaces. The forms are interesting because they focus…
The question whether global symmetries can be realized in quantum-gravity-matter-systems has far-reaching phenomenological consequences. Here, we collect evidence that within an asymptotically safe context, discrete global symmetries of the…
We reconsider a gauge theory of gravity in which the gauge group is the conformal group SO(4,2) and the action is of the Yang-Mills form, quadratic in the curvature. The resulting gravitational theory exhibits local conformal symmetry and…
We provide a rather extended introduction to the group field theory approach to quantum gravity, and the main ideas behind it. We present in some detail the GFT quantization of 3d Riemannian gravity, and discuss briefly the current status…
A central aspect of the cosmological constant problem is to understand why vacuum energy does not gravitate. In order to account for this observation, while allowing for nontrivial dynamics of the quantum vacuum, we motivate a novel…
Loop quantum gravity, a non-perturbative and manifestly background free, quantum theory of gravity implies that at the kinematical level the spatial geometry is discrete in a specific sense. The spirit of background independence also…
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…
For more than 80 years theoretical physicists have been trying to develop a theory of quantum gravity which would successfully combine the tenets of Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) together with those of quantum field theory.…
We offer a perspective on some recent results obtained in the context of the group field theory approach to quantum gravity, on top of reviewing them briefly. These concern a natural mechanism for the emergence of non-commutative field…
The early universe provides an opportunity for quantum gravity to connect to observation by explaining the large-scale structure of the Universe. In the group field theory (GFT) approach, a macroscopic universe is described as a GFT…
A possible way out of the conundrum of quantum gravity is the proposal that general relativity (GR) is not a fundamental theory but emerges from an underlying microscopic description. Despite recent interest in the emergent gravity program…
Quantum General Relativity (QGR), sometimes called Loop Quantum Gravity, has matured over the past fifteen years to a mathematically rigorous candidate quantum field theory of the gravitational field. The features that distinguish it from…
We study the gravity-mediated scattering of scalar fields based on a parameterisation of the Lorentzian quantum effective action. We demonstrate that the interplay of infinite towers of spin zero and spin two poles at imaginary squared…
We discuss aspects of global and gauged symmetries in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, focusing on discrete gauge symmetries. An effective Lagrangian description of $\Z_p$ gauge theories shows that they are associated with an…
We present here a spectrum of developments and predictions in gravitation theory in recent years which appear to be amongst some of the most exciting directions. These include the spacetime singularities, gravitational collapse final…
In the first part of the thesis, and after an introduction to certain models of modified gravity, we study consistent Lagrangians for Lorentz invariant (massive and massless) spin-2 and spin-3/2 particles in flat space. The second part of…
We briefly review some selected topics gravitating around large scale structures. We derive from inflation the evolution of dark matter perturbations. The stress is put on the non-linear regime of structures formation, with a particular…
We review recent developments in the field of string cosmology with particular emphasis on open problems having to do mainly with geometric asymptotics and singularities. We discuss outstanding issues in a variety of currently popular…
The interaction of (linearized) gravitation with matter is studied in the causal approach up to the second order of perturbation theory. We consider the generic case and prove that gravitation is universal in the sense that the existence of…
This is a broad-brush review of how string theory addresses several important questions of gravitational physics. The problem of non-renormalizability is first reviewed, followed by introduction of string theory as an ultraviolet-finite…