Related papers: Emergent diffeomorphism invariance in toy models
Over the past five years, there has been significant progress on the problem of quantization of diffeomorphism covariant field theories with {\it local} degrees of freedom. The absence of a background space-time metric in these theories…
We consider a class of Lorentz-violating theories of gravity involving a timelike unit vector field (the aether) coupled to a metric, two examples being Einstein-aether theory and Ho\v{r}ava gravity. The action always includes the Ricci…
We study the consequences of the modification of the phase space structure of General Relativity imposed by breaking the full diffeomorphism invariance but retaining the time foliation preserving diffeomorphisms. We examine the different…
It is often argued that gravity has to be a quantum theory simply because a fundamentally semiclassical approach would necessarily be inconsistent. Here I review recent Newtonian toy models of (stochastic) semiclassical gravity. They…
Based on a family of indefinite unitary representations of the diffeomorphism group of an oriented smooth $4$-manifold, a manifestly covariant $4$ dimensional and non-perturbative algebraic quantum field theory formulation of gravity is…
This note is to bring to the reader's attention the fact that general relativity and quantum mechanics differ from each other in one main aspect. General relativity is based on the diffeomorphism covariant formulation of the laws of physics…
Effective models of black holes interior have led to several proposals for regular black holes. In the so-called polymer models, based on effective deformations of the phase space of spherically symmetric general relativity in vacuum, one…
If the diffeomorphism symmetry of general relativity is fully implemented into a path integral quantum theory, the path integral leads to a partition function which is an invariant of smooth manifolds. We comment on the physical…
The problems encountered in trying to quantize the various cosmological models, are brought forward by means of a concrete example. The Automorphism groups are revealed as the key element through which G.C.T.'s can be used for a general…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
Assuming that Quantum Mechanics is universal and that it can be applied over all scales, then the Universe is allowed to be in a quantum superposition of states, where each of them can correspond to a different space-time geometry. How can…
In this paper I raise a worry about the most extended resolutions of the problem of time of canonical quantizations of general relativity. The reason for this is that these resolutions are based on analogies with deparametrizable models for…
We first propose and study a quantum toy model of black hole dynamics. The model is unitary, displays quantum thermalization, and the Hamiltonian couples every oscillator with every other, a feature intended to emulate the color sector…
We discuss the derivation of the so-called semi-classical equations for both mini-superspace and dilaton gravity. We find that there is no systematic derivation of a semi-classical theory in which quantum mechanics is formulated in a…
We construct a model of quantum gravity in which dimension, topology and geometry of spacetime are dynamical. The microscopic degree of freedom is a real rectangular matrix whose rows label internal flavours, and columns label spatial…
We discuss diffeomorphism and gauge invariant theories in three dimensions motivated by the fact that some models of interest do not have a suitable action description yet. The construction is based on a canonical representation of symmetry…
A number of recent proposals for a quantum theory of gravity are based on the idea that spacetime geometry and gravity are derivative concepts and only apply at an approximate level. There are two fundamental challenges to any such…
We construct a class of theories which are scale invariant on quantum level in all orders of perturbation theory. In a subclass of these models scale invariance is spontaneously broken, leading to the existence of a massless dilaton. The…
From the Physics point of view, time is now best described through General Relativity, as part of space-time which is a dynamical object encoding gravity. Time possesses also some intrinsic irreversibility due to thermodynamics, quantum…
The problem of time in quantum gravity occurs because `time' is taken to have a different meaning in each of general relativity and ordinary quantum theory. This incompatibility creates serious problems with trying to replace these two…