Related papers: Princeton seminars on physics and philosophy
This is a contribution to a book on quantum gravity and philosophy. I discuss nature and origin of the problem of quantum gravity. I examine the knowledge that may guide us in addressing this problem, and the reliability of such knowledge.…
If gravity respects quantum mechanics, it is important to identify the essential postulates of a quantum framework capable of incorporating gravitational phenomena. Such a construct likely requires elimination or modification of some of the…
This essay is a tour around many of the lesser known pregeometric models of physics, as well as the mainstream approaches to quantum gravity, in search of common themes which may provide a glimpse of the final theory which must lie behind…
After an overview of the physical motivations for studying quantum gravity, we reprint THE FORMAL STRUCTURE OF QUANTUM GRAVITY, i.e. the 1978 Cargese Lectures by Professor B.S. DeWitt, with kind permission of Springer. The reader is…
The relationship between the intrinsic motion of gravity, light, and time is explored in terms of the principles of entropy, causality, energy, and symmetry conservation. A conceptual mechanism for gravity and the gravitational connection…
We propose the quantum mechanical description of complex systems should be performed using two types of causality relation: the ordering relation ($x\prec y$) and the subset relation ($A\subseteq B$). The structures with two ordering…
This thesis is situated within the context of quantum gravity, broadly understood as any effort to explore the interplay between gravitation and the quantum realm, without necessarily requiring the quantization of the gravitational field…
Lecture script of a one-semester course that aims to develop an understanding and appreciation of fundemental concepts in modern physics for students who are comfortable with calculus. This document contains the last part of the course…
Most of the approaches to the construction of a theory of quantum gravity share some principles which do not have specific experimental support up to date. Two of these principles are relevant for our discussion: (i) the gravitational field…
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…
Over the last few years part of the quantum-gravity community has adopted a more optimistic attitude toward the possibility of finding experimental contexts providing insight on non-classical properties of spacetime. I review those…
Conceptual consequences of recent results in loop quantum gravity are collected and discussed here in view of their implications for a modern philosophy of science which is mainly understood as one that totalizes scientific insight so as to…
These lectures briefly review our current understanding of classical and quantum gravity in three spacetime dimensions, concentrating on the quantum mechanics of closed universes and the (2+1)-dimensional black hole. Three formulations of…
This is a translation into English of my Masters thesis (hovedoppgave) from 1991. The main topic of the thesis is the relation between fundamental physics and philosophy, and a discussion of several possible ontologies of quantum field…
We summarize basic features of quantum gravity states and processes, common to a number of related quantum gravity formalisms, and sharing a purely combinatorial and algebraic language, and a discrete geometric interpretation. We emphasize…
The long history of the study of quantum gravity has thrown up a complex web of ideas and approaches. The aim of this article is to unravel this web a little by analysing some of the {\em prima facie\/} questions that can be asked of almost…
I describe several conceptual aspects of a particular paradigm which treats the field equations of gravity as emergent. These aspects are related to the features of classical gravitational theories which defy explanation within the…
I give a brief non-technical review of "Quantum Gravity Phenomenology" and in particular I describe some studies which should soon allow to establish valuable data-based constraints on the short-distance structure of spacetime.
Rapid ongoing progress in quantum information science makes this an apt time for a Solvay Conference focused on The Physics of Quantum Information. Here I review four intertwined themes encompassed by this topic: Quantum computer science,…
This lecture reviews aspects of and prospects for progress towards a theory of quantum gravity from a particle physics perspective, also paying attention to recent findings of the LHC experiments at CERN.