Related papers: Topics in String Theory and Quantum Gravity
Loop Quantum Gravity is a theory that attempts to describe the quantum mechanics of the gravitational field based on the canonical quantization of General Relativity. According to Loop Quantum Gravity, in a gravitational field, geometric…
Cylindrically symmetric stationary spacetimes are examined in the framework of string-inpired generalized theory of gravity. In four dimensions this theory contains a dilatonic scalar field in addition to gravity. A charged perfect fluid…
Following Dyson's analogy between the quantum field theory and the 19th-century chemistry-both explain how but not why-one could also establish an analogy between atomic physics and string theory. Atomic physics was needed to answer the…
I describe the recent progress in resolving two problems of nonperturbative bosonic string inherited from 1980's. Both the lattice and KPZ-DDK no-go theorems can be bypassed thanks to specific features of the theory with diffeomorphism…
We review recent progress in our understanding of the physics of black holes. In particular, we discuss the ideas from string theory that explain the entropy of black holes from a counting of microstates of the hole, and the related…
Recent years have seen noteworthy progress in the mathematical formulation of quantum field theory and perturbative string theory. We give a brief survey of these developments. It serves as an introduction to the more detailed collection…
We review a selection of recent developments in the application of ideas of string theory to heavy ion physics. Our topics divide naturally into equilibrium and non-equilibrium phenomena. On the non-equilibrium side, we discuss…
This thesis is devoted to trying to find a microscopic quantum description of black holes. We consider black holes in string theory which is a quantum theory of gravity. We find that the ``area law'' black hole entropy for extremal and…
We discuss aspects of global and gauged symmetries in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, focusing on discrete gauge symmetries. An effective Lagrangian description of $\Z_p$ gauge theories shows that they are associated with an…
We give an overview of ongoing searches for effects motivated by the study of the quantum-gravity problem. We describe in greater detail approaches which have not been covered in recent ``Quantum Gravity Phenomenology'' reviews. In…
The problem of reconciling general relativity and quantum theory has fascinated and bedeviled physicists for more than 70 years. Despite recent progress in string theory and loop quantum gravity, a complete solution remains out of reach. I…
As of today there exist consistent, gauge-invariant string field theories describing all string theories: bosonic open and closed strings, open superstrings, heterotic strings and type II strings. The construction of these theories require…
We use exact results in a new approach to quantum gravity to discuss some issues in black hole physics.
The cosmological constant and electroweak hierarchy problem have been a great inspiration for research. Nevertheless, the resolution of these two naturalness problems remains mysterious from the perspective of a low-energy effective field…
We briefly review three aspects of string cosmology: (1) the ``stochastic'' approach to the pre-big bang scenario, (2) the presence of chaos in the generic cosmological solutions of the tree-level low-energy effective actions coming out of…
Practically measurable quantities resulting from quantum field theory are not described by hermitian operators, contradicting one of the cornerstone axioms of orthodox quantum theory. This could be a sign that some of the axioms of orthodox…
We review some recent developments in string theory, emphasizing the importance of vacuum instabilities, their relation to the density of states, and the role of space-time fermions in non-critical string theory. We also discuss the…
A quantum equivalence principle is formulated by means of a gravitational phase operator which is an element of the Poincare group. This is applied to the spinning cosmic string which suggests that it may, but not necessarily, contain…
Quantum field theory (QFT) on fractal spacetimes is a program aiming at quantizing the gravitational interaction consistently at all energy scales thanks to an intrinsically or dynamically induced multiscale or multifractal-like spacetime…
The main results for the two-dimensional quantum gravity, conjectured from the matrix model or integrable approach, are presented in the form to be compared with the world-sheet or Liouville approach. In spherical limit the integrable side…