Related papers: Lack of Value Definiteness in Quantum Gravity
The research in quantum gravity has jauntily grown in the recent years, intersecting with conceptual and philosophical issues that have a long history. In this paper I analyze the conceptual basis on which Loop Quantum Gravity has grown,…
Eternalism, the view that what we regard locally as being located in the past, the present and the future equally exists, is the best ontological account of temporal existence in line with special and general relativity. However, special…
This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity (from string theory and loop quantum gravity) to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of the big bang. While the classical…
In this paper, we outline a new approach to quantum gravity; describing states for a bounded region of spacetime as eigenstates for two classes of physically plausible gedanken experiments. We end up with two complementary descriptions in…
The search for a consistent and empirically established quantum theory of gravity is among the biggest open problems of fundamental physics. The obstacles are of formal and of conceptual nature. Here, I address the main conceptual problems,…
One of the celebrated results of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) is the discreteness of the spectrum of geometrical operators such as length, area and volume operators. This is an indication that Planck scale geometry in LQG is discontinuous…
What ontology does realism about the quantum state suggest? The main extant view in contemporary philosophy of physics is wave-function realism. We elaborate the sense in which wave-function realism does provide an ontological picture; and…
We offer a critical assessment of some generic features of various of the current approaches towards the construction of a Theory of Quantum Gravity. We will argue that there is a need for further conceptual clarifications before such an…
General relativity is a background-independent theory of a dynamical classical spacetime geometry. Quantum theory is formulated in a classical spacetime, as an intrinsically probabilistic, contextual theory of non-classical, interfering…
Measurement is an important scientific activity. In most of science, including classical physics, is may be understood as a way of finding out about the physical world and representing the results numerically. No-go theorems show that…
In any attempt to build a quantum theory of gravity, a central issue is to unravel the structure of space-time at the smallest scale. Of particular relevance is the possible definition of coordinate functions within the theory and the study…
Quantum gravity, as a fundamental theory of space-time, is expected to reveal how the universe may have started, perhaps during or before an inflationary epoch. It may then leave a potentially observable (but probably minuscule) trace in…
A quantum gravity computer is one for which the particular effects of quantum gravity are relevant. In general relativity, causal structure is non-fixed. In quantum theory non-fixed quantities are subject to quantum uncertainty. It is…
We present a straightforward and self-contained introduction to the basics of the loop approach to quantum gravity, and a derivation of what is arguably its key result, namely the spectral analysis of the area operator. We also discuss the…
We review the present status of gauge theories built on various quantum space-times described by noncommutative space-times. The mathematical tools and notions underlying their construction are given. Different formulations of gauge theory…
On one popular view, the general covariance of gravity implies that change is relational in a strong sense, such that all it is for a physical degree of freedom to change is for it to vary with regard to a second physical degree of freedom.…
Non-Abelian Gauss law is interpreted in terms of area bits described in a local frame which fit together into closed surfaces and the Non-Abelian Stokes law in terms of length bits described in a local frame which fit together into closed…
Spacetime manifolds that are not time orientable play a key role in a gravitational explanation of quantum theory. Such manifolds allow topology change, but also have fascinating additional properties such as net charge from source-free…
In an attempt to re-establish space-time as an essential frame for formulating quantum gravity - rather than an "emergent" one -, we find that exact invariance under scale transformations is an essential new ingredient for such a theory.…
String theory, quantum geometry, loop quantum gravity and black hole physics all indicate the existence of a minimal observable length on the order of Planck length. This feature leads to a modification of Heisenberg uncertainty principle.…