Related papers: Glimmers of a post-geometric perspective
The vacuum is the lowest energy state of a field in a certain region of space. This definition implies that no particles can be present in the vacuum state. In classical physics, the only features of vacuum are those of its geometry. For…
We show that the metric (line element) is the first geometrical object to be associated to a discrete (quantum) structure of the spacetime without necessity of black hole-entropy-area arguments, in sharp contrast with other attempts in the…
It has been shown that at the semi-classical order, gravitational theories with quantum fluctuations can be effectively recast as modified theories of gravity with non-minimal gravity-matter couplings. We proceed from an observational…
We compare the recent loop quantum cosmology approach of Bojowald and co-workers with earlier quantum cosmological schemes. Because the weak-energy condition can now be violated at short distances, and not necessarily with a high energy…
Quantum gravity in a closed universe faces two a priori distinct yet seemingly related issues: the problem of time and the fact that its Hilbert space dimension is one. Both have been argued to be resolvable by formulating physics relative…
Associated to any (pseudo)-Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ is an $n+1$-dimensional noncommutative differential structure $(\Omega^1,\extd)$ on the manifold, with the extra dimension encoding the classical Laplacian as a…
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…
All existing experimental results are currently interpreted using classical geometry. However, there are theoretical reasons to suspect that at a deeper level, geometry emerges as an approximate macroscopic behavior of a quantum system at…
Starting with the generally well accepted opinion that quantizing an arbitrary Hamiltonian system involves picking out some additional structure on the classical phase space (the {\sl shadow} of quantum mechanics in the classical theory),…
We suggest a new scenario of gravitation in which gravity at the fundamental level is described by a Riemannian (i.e. locally Euclidean) theory without the notion of time. The Lorentzian metric structure and the notion of time emerge as…
The construction of effective Hamiltonians describing corrections to flat space particle dynamics arising from the granularity of space at very short distances is discussed in the framework of an heuristic approach to the semiclassical…
The cosmological propagation of tensor perturbations is studied in the context of parity-violating extensions of the symmetric teleparallel equivalent of General Relativity theory. This non-Riemannian formulation allows for a wider variety…
The space discreteness hypothesis asserts that the nature of space at short distances is radically different from that at large distances. Based on the Bronstein inequality, here, we use a totally disconnected topological space…
A detailed review is given of the semiclassical approximation to quantum gravity in the canonical framework. This includes in particular the derivation of the functional Schr\"odinger equation and a discussion of semiclassical time as well…
In this work, we explore the possibility that quantum fluctuations induce a topology change, in the context of Gravity's Rainbow. A semi-classical approach is adopted, where the graviton one-loop contribution to a classical energy in a…
Combining gravity with quantum theory is still work in progress. On the one hand, classical gravity, is the geometry of space-time determined by the energy-momentum tensor of matter and the resulting nonlinear equations; on the other hand,…
These notes give a concise introduction to General Relativity at the advanced undergraduate level, starting from the weak field limit and gravitational waves, then introducing curved manifolds and Riemannian geometry. The nonlinear…
Gravitation might make a preferred frame appear, and with it a clear space/time separation--the latter being, a priori, needed by quantum mechanics (QM) in curved space-time. Several models of gravitation with an ether are discussed: they…
Black hole event horizons and cosmological event horizons share many properties, making it natural to ask whether our recent advances in understanding black holes generalize to cosmology. To this end, we discuss a paradox that occurs if…
A new gauge theory of gravity is presented. The theory is constructed in a flat background spacetime and employs gauge fields to ensure that all relations between physical quantities are independent of the positions and orientations of the…