Related papers: Question on D=26 --- String Theory versus Quantum …
A model of matter-coupled gravity in two dimensions is quantized. The crucial requirement for performing the quantization is the vanishing of the conformal anomaly, which is achieved by tuning a parameter in the interaction potential. The…
It is shown that conformal matter with $c_{\ssc L}\not=c_{\ssc R}$ can be consistently coupled to two-dimensional `frame' gravity. The theory is quantized, following David, and Distler and Kawai, using the derivation of their {\it ansatz}…
I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…
Quantum gravity--the marriage of quantum physics with general relativity--is bound to contain deep and important lessons for the nature of physical time. Some of these lessons shall be canvassed here, particularly as they arise from quantum…
It is rather well-known that spacetime singularities are not covariant under field redefinitions. A manifestly covariant approach to singularities in classical gravity was proposed in arXiv:2008.09387. In this paper, we start to extend this…
Using the recently found first order formulation of two-dimensional dilaton gravity with boundary, we perform a Hamiltonian analysis and subsequent path integral quantization. The importance of the boundary terms to obtain the correct…
We argue that duality symmetries can be manifestly realised when theories with these symmetries are quantised using phase space quantum theory. In particular, using background fields and phase space quantum theory, we quantise the bosonic…
In this report we discuss three aspects: 1) Semiclassical gravity theory (SCG): 4 levels of theories describing the interaction of quantum matter with classical gravity; 2) Alternative Quantum Theories: Discerning those which are derivable…
We carry out the canonical analysis of a covariant version of unimodular gravity in terms of the connection representation. We then proceed to quantize this theory by implementing the Dirac procedure. We confirm whether and how the Kodama…
The history of general relativity suggests that in absence of experimental data, constructing a theory on philosophical first principles can lead to a very useful theory as well as to ground-breaking insights about physical reality. The two…
The observation that spacetime and quantum fields on it have to be dynamically produced in any theory of quantum gravity implies that quantum gravity should be defined on the configuration space of fields rather than spacetime. Such a…
This note is to bring to the reader's attention the fact that general relativity and quantum mechanics differ from each other in one main aspect. General relativity is based on the diffeomorphism covariant formulation of the laws of physics…
Quantum gravity effects are traditionally tied to short distances and high energies. In this essay we argue that, perhaps surprisingly, quantum gravity may have important consequences for the phenomenology of the infrared. We center our…
We examine the general issue of whether a scale dependent cosmological constant can be consistent with general covariance, a problem that arises naturally in the treatment of quantum gravitation where coupling constants generally run as a…
Recently there have been several studies devoted to the investigation of the fate of fundamental relativistic symmetries at the foreseen unification of gravity and quantum regime, that is the Planck scale. In order to preserve covariance of…
The classical and the quantum massive string model based on a modified BDHP action is analyzed in the range of dimensions $1<d<25$. The discussion concerning classical theory includes a formulation of the geometrical variational principle,…
String theory provides one of the most deepest insights into quantum gravity. Its single most central and profound result is the gauge/gravity duality, i.e. the emergence of gravity from gauge theory. The two examples of M(atrix)-theory and…
There exist several different proposals for a measure in Quantum Gravity theories. Although sometimes being labelled as non covariant, the measure derived in [7] for GR has the particularity that, in the extremal, the volume divergences…
The ultraviolet cutoff on a quantum field theory can be interpreted as a condensate of the affine curvature such that while the maximum of the affine action gives the power-law corrections, its minimum leads to the emergence of gravity.…
We discuss string theory vacua which have the wrong number of spacetime dimensions, and give a crude argument that vacua with more than four large dimensions are improbable. We then turn to two dimensional vacua, which naively appear to…