Related papers: Quantum Field Theory of Geometry
All existing experimental results are currently interpreted using classical geometry. However, there are theoretical reasons to suspect that at a deeper level, geometry emerges as an approximate macroscopic behavior of a quantum system at…
Canonical quantum gravity provides insights into the quantum dynamics as well as quantum geometry of space-time by its implications for constraints. Loop quantum gravity in particular requires specific corrections due to its quantization…
In any attempt to build a quantum theory of gravity, a central issue is to unravel the structure of space-time at the smallest scale. Of particular relevance is the possible definition of coordinate functions within the theory and the study…
It is generally believed that a full-fledged theory of quantum gravity should exhibit background independence and diffeomorphism invariance. In its most general form, the latter comprises field redefinitions, which are diffeomorphisms in…
Results that illuminate the physical interpretation of states of nonperturbative quantum gravity are obtained using the recently introduced loop variables. It is shown that: i) While local operators such as the metric at a point may not be…
Over the last two years, the canonical approach to quantum gravity based on connections and triads has been put on a firm mathematical footing through the development and application of a new functional calculus on the space of gauge…
We develop a quantum effective action for scalar-tensor theories of gravity which is both spacetime diffeomorphism invariant and field reparameterisation (frame) invariant beyond the classical approximation. We achieve this by extending the…
We consider some general aspects of the new noncommutative or quantum geometry coming out of the theory of quantum groups, in connection with Planck scale physics. A generalisation of Fourier or wave-particle duality on curved spaces…
Geometric quantization is an attempt at using the differential-geometric ingredients of classical phase spaces regarded as symplectic manifolds in order to define a corresponding quantum theory. Generally, the process of geometric…
If the diffeomorphism symmetry of general relativity is fully implemented into a path integral quantum theory, the path integral leads to a partition function which is an invariant of smooth manifolds. We comment on the physical…
Usual quantum mechanics requires a fixed, background, spacetime geometry and its associated causal structure. A generalization of the usual theory may therefore be needed at the Planck scale for quantum theories of gravity in which…
Any acceptable quantum gravity theory must allow us to recover the classical spacetime in the appropriate limit. Moreover, the spacetime geometrical notions should be intrinsically tied to the behavior of the matter that probes them. We…
The representation theory of non-centrally extended Lie algebras of Noether symmetries, including spacetime diffeomorphisms and reparametrizations of the observer's trajectory, has recently been developped. It naturally solves some…
One of the many conceptual difficulties in the development of quantum gravity is the role of a background geometry for the structure of quantum field theory. To some extent the problem can be solved by the principle of local covariance. The…
Phase spaces with nontrivial geometry appear in different approaches to quantum gravity and can also play a role in e.g. condensed matter physics. However, so far such phase spaces have only been considered for particles or strings. We…
In black hole physics, inflationary cosmology, and quantum field theories, it is conjectured that the physical laws are subject to radical changes below the Planck length. Such changes are due to effects of quantum gravity believed to…
We review the status of (scalar) quantum field theory on curved spacetimes using a novel formulation in terms of non linear functionals over the smooth configuration fields. In particular, this entails also a new foundation of locally…
We review and discuss the role of diffeomorphism symmetry in quantum gravity models. Such models often involve a discretization of the space-time manifold as a regularization method. Generically this leads to a breaking of the symmetries to…
The geometro-stochastic method of quantization provides a framework for quantum general relativity, in which the principal frame bundles of local Lorentz frames that underlie the fibre-theoretical approach to classical general relativity…
It is conjectured that the spatial structure of quantum field states is influenced by a new kind of directional indeterminacy of quantum geometry set by the Planck length, $l_P$, that does not occur in a classical background geometry.…