Related papers: Singularities and Quantum Gravity
A series of old and recent theoretical observations suggests that the quantization of gravity would be feasible, and some problems of Quantum Field Theory would go away if, somehow, the spacetime would undergo a dimensional reduction at…
Although general relativity is a predictively successful theory, it treats matter as classical rather than as quantum. For this reason, it will have to be replaced by a more fundamental quantum theory of gravity. Attempts to formulate a…
Singularity theorems demonstrate the inevitable breakdown of the concept of continuous, classical spacetime under highly general conditions. Quantum gravity is expected to intervene to avoid singularities and models so far hint towards…
We argue that recent developments in discretizations of classical and quantum gravity imply a new paradigm for doing research in these areas. The paradigm consists in discretizing the theory in such a way that the resulting discrete theory…
Scenario of a bouncing universe is one of the most active area of research to arrive at singularity free cosmological models. Different proposals have been suggested to avoid the so called 'big bang' singularity through the quantum aspect…
We review the classical and quantum singularity structure of a broad class of spacetimes with asymptotically power-law behavior near the origin. Quantum considerations "heal" a large class of scalar curvature singularities.
It is shown that the cosmological singularity in isotropic minisuperspaces is naturally removed by quantum geometry. Already at the kinematical level, this is indicated by the fact that the inverse scale factor is represented by a bounded…
In view of the enormous difficulties we seem to face in quantizing general relativity, we should perhaps consider the possibility that gravity is a fundamentally classical interaction. Theoretical arguments against such mixed…
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.…
The effort to discover a quantum theory of gravity is motivated by the need to reconcile the incompatibility between quantum theory and general relativity. Here, we present an alternative approach by constructing a consistent theory of…
We point out that spacetime singularities play a useful role in gravitational theories by eliminating unphysical solutions. In particular, we argue that any modification of general relativity which is completely nonsingular cannot have a…
Whether gravity must be quantized remains one of the biggest open problems in fundamental physics. Classical-quantum hybrid theories have recently attracted attention as a possible framework in which gravity is treated classically yet…
The prediction of spacetime singularities, regions of infinite curvature where classical physics breaks down, is one of the most profound challenges in General Relativity (GR). In particular, black hole solutions such as the Schwarzschild…
In classical general relativity, the generic approach to the initial singularity is very complicated as exemplified by the chaos of the Bianchi IX model which displays the generic local evolution close to a singularity. Quantum gravity…
A discursive, non-technical, analysis is made of some of the basic issues that arise in almost any approach to quantum gravity, and of how these issues stand in relation to recent developments in the field. Specific topics include the…
Loop quantum cosmology is an application of recent developments for a non-perturbative and background independent quantization of gravity to a cosmological setting. Characteristic properties of the quantization such as discreteness of…
In this dissertation we study two well known gravitational scenarios in which singularities may appear; the final state of gravitational collapse and the late time evolution of the universe. In the first scenario, we study a spherically…
The mutual conceptual incompatibility between GR and QM/QFT is generally seen as the most essential motivation for the development of a theory of Quantum Gravity (QG). It leads to the insight that, if gravity is a fundamental interaction…
The formation of singularities in certain situations, such as the collapse of massive stars, is one of the unresolved issues in classical general relativity. Although no complete theory of quantum gravity exists it is often suggested that…
We discuss the problem of singularity crossing in isotropic and anisotropic universes. We study at which conditions singularities can disappear in quantum cosmology and how quantum particles behave in the vicinity of singularities. Some…