Related papers: A New Spin on Quantum Gravity
It has been recently proposed that the interpretation of gravity as an emergent, entropic force might have nontrivial implications to cosmology. Here two approaches are investigated: in one, the Friedman equation receives entropic…
Quantum gravity is studied nonperturbatively in the case in which space has a boundary with finite area. A natural set of boundary conditions is studied in the Euclidean signature theory, in which the pullback of the curvature to the…
Cosmic inflation is commonly assumed to be driven by quantum fields. Quantum mechanics predicts phenomena such as quantum fluctuations and tunneling of the field. Here we show an example of a quantum interference effect which goes beyond…
This paper explores the theoretical implications of quantum gravity by analyzing compact stellar objects, presenting three distinct models that serve as alternatives to traditional black holes. These models are characterized by their…
Many years ago Friedman and Sorkin [1] established the existence of certain topological solitonic excitations in quantum gravity called (topological) geons. Geons can have quantum numbers like charge and can be tensorial or spinorial having…
In this essay we offer a comprehensible overview of the gravitational aether scenario. This is a possible extension of Einstein's theory of relativity to the quantum regime via an effective approach. Quantization of gravity usually faces…
Considering the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for quantum gravity with (positive) cosmological constant, we show that speeds must be quantized and we investigate the physical implications of this effect such as the emergence of an effective…
We investigate the problem of metric fluctuations in the presence of the vacuum fluctuations of matter fields and critically assess the usual assertion that vacuum energy implies a Planckian cosmological constant. A new stochastic classical…
We evoke situations where large fluctuations in the entropy are induced, our main example being a spacetime containing a potential black hole whose formation depends on the outcome of a quantum mechanical event. We argue that the…
We investigate the cosmological implications of modified gravities induced by the quantum fluctuations of the gravitational metric. If the metric can be decomposed as the sum of the classical and of a fluctuating part, of quantum origin,…
We show that, when we study the coexistence of general relativity with thermodynamics, some physical properties that are usually thought of as holographic and lying in the domain of quantum gravity can actually be accessed even at the…
According to general relativity, the present analysis shows on geometrical grounds that the cosmological constant problem is an artifact due to the unfounded link of this fundamental constant to vacuum energy density of quantum…
The standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem is based on one critical assumption---the spacetime is homogeneous and isotropic, which is true only on cosmological scales. However, this problem is caused by extremely small…
We start with a brief account of the latest analysis of the Oklo phenomenon providing the still most stringent constraint on time-variability of the fine- structure constant $\alpha$. Comparing this with the recent result from the…
We will look for an implementation of new symmetries in the space-time structure and their cosmological implications. This search will allow us to find a unified vision for electrodynamics and gravitation. We will attempt to develop a…
Space--time can be understood as some kind of space--time foam of fluctuating bubbles or loops which are expected to be an outcome of a theory of quantum gravity. One recently discussed model for this kind of space--time fluctuations is the…
Inflationary cosmology successfully accounts for the observed properties of primordial fluctuations using quantum field theory in an expanding background. However, the quantum nature of these fluctuations has not been experimentally…
The nature of the cosmological constant is a mystery. We don't understand its quantum origin but we associate it with the actual acceleration of the universe because it is the simplest description we had until recently of the present…
The quantum description of time evolution in non-linear gravitational systems such as cosmological space-times is not well understood. We show, in the simplified setting of mini-superspace, that time evolution of this system can be obtained…
A new idea of the cosmological constant is proposed in this paper. Due to the horizon is limited, the quantum fluctuation of the inflaton field is not zero, a nonzero vacuum energy is remained as a residual inflationary energy of an unusual…