Related papers: What is the Geometry of Superspace ?
We give an introduction into quantum cosmology with emphasis on its conceptual parts. After a general motivation we review the formalism of canonical quantum gravity on which discussions of quantum cosmology are usually based. We then…
I have shown that the field defined by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for \textit{pure gravity} is neither a standard gravitational field nor the field representing a particular universe. The theory offers a unified description of geometry and…
We discuss some general properties of quantum gravity in De Sitter space. It has been argued that the Hilbert space is of finite dimension. This suggests a macroscopic argument that General Relativity cannot be quantized -- unless it is…
The space of all Riemannian metrics is infinite-dimensional. Nevertheless a great deal of usual Riemannian geometry can be carried over. The superspace of all Riemannian metrics shall be endowed with a class of Riemannian metrics; their…
Quantum geometrodynamics is canonical quantum gravity with the three-metric as the configuration variable. Its central equation is the Wheeler--DeWitt equation. Here I give an overview of the status of this approach. The issues discussed…
The geometric foundations of General Relativity are revisited, with particular attention to its gauge invariance, as a key to understanding the true nature of spacetime. Beyond the common image of spacetime as a deformable 'fabric' filling…
Wheeler's Superspace is the arena in which Geometrodynamics takes place. I review some aspects of its geometrical and topological structure that Wheeler urged us to take seriously in the context of canonical quantum gravity.
The Wheeler-DeWitt Equation represents a tool to study Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology. Its solution in a very general context is, of course, impossible. To this purpose we consider some distortions of General Relativity like…
This is a pedagogical paper which explains some ideas in cosmology at a level accessible to undergraduate students. It does not use general relativity, but uses the ideas of Newtonian cosmology worked out by Milne and McCrea. The…
The higher dimensional Quantum General Relativity of a Riemannian manifold being an embedded space in a space-time being a Lorentzian manifold is investigated. The model of quantum geometrodynamics, based on the Wheeler-DeWitt equation…
In 1+1 dimensions, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation cannot be imposed owing to an anomaly in its commutator with the diffeomorphism constraint. A similar obstruction prevents also a semiclassical definition of a WKB local time. (Talk given at…
The talk is devoted to the "extended phase space" approach to Quantum Geometrodynamics. The premises that have led to the formulation of this approach are briefly reviewed, namely, non-trivial topology of the Universe which implies the…
Physical spacetime geometry follows from some effective thermodynamics of quantum states of all fields and particles described in frames of General Relativity. In the sense of pure field theoretical Einstein's point of view on gravitation…
The higher-spin geometries of $W_\infty$-gravity and $W_N$-gravity are analysed and used to derive the complete non-linear structure of the coupling to matter and its symmetries. The symmetry group is a subgroup of the symplectic…
The definition of matter states on spacelike hypersurfaces of a 1+1 dimensional black hole spacetime is considered. Because of small quantum fluctuations in the mass of the black hole, the usual approximation of treating the gravitational…
It has been proposed that on (anti)-de Sitter background, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle should be modified by the introduction of a term proportional to the cosmological constant. We show that this modification of the uncertainty…
Several lines of evidence hint that quantum gravity at very small distances may be effectively two-dimensional. I summarize the evidence for such ``spontaneous dimensional reduction,'' and suggest an additional argument coming from the…
The de Sitter invariant special relativity is a natural extension of the usual Einstein special relativity. Within this framework a generalization of special relativity (SR) for the de Sitter space-time introduces a new length scale $R$,…
The paper is devoted to some of the difficulties which the Wheeler - DeWitt quantum geometrodynamics encountered, in particular, a strong mathematical proof that this theory is gauge-invariant, the definition of the wave function of the…
This thesis is dedicated to the study of the geometry of six-dimensional superspace, endowed with the minimal amount of supersymmetry. In the first part of it, we unfold the main geometrical features of such superspace by solving completely…