Quantum gravity
Quantum gravity is the field of
theoretical physics attempting to unify the theory of quantum mechanics, which describes three of the
fundamental forces of nature, with general relativity, the theory of the fourth fundamental force:
gravity. The ultimate goal is a unified framework for all fundamental forces—a
theory of everything.
Much of the difficulty in merging these theories comes from the radically different assumptions that these theories make on how the universe works.
Quantum mechanics depends on particle fields embedded in the flat space-time of
special relativity.
General relativity models gravity as a curvature within
space-time that changes as mass moves. The most obvious ways of combining the two (such as treating gravity as simply another particle field) run quickly into what is known as the
renormalization problem. Gravity particles would attract each other and adding together all of the interactions results in many infinite values which cannot easily be cancelled out mathematically to yield sensible, finite results. This is in contrast with
quantum electrodynamics where the interactions sometimes evaluate to infinite results, but those are few enough in number to be removable via renormalization.
Another difficulty comes from the success of both
quantum mechanics and
general relativity. Both have been highly successful and there are no known phenomena that contradict the two. The energies and conditions at which quantum gravity is likely to be important are inaccessible to laboratory experiments. The result of this is that there are no experimental observations which would provide any hints as to how to combine the two.
The general approach taken in deriving a theory of quantum gravity is to \nassume that the underlying theory will be simple and elegant and then to\nlook at current theories for symmetries and hints for how to combine them\nelegantly into an overarching theory. One problem with this approach is\nthat it is not known if quantum gravity will be a simple and elegant theory.
Such a theory is required in order to understand those problems involving the combination of very large mass or energy and very small dimensions of space, such as the behaviour of
black holes, and the
origin of the universe.
The incompatibility between quantum mechanics and general relativity
At present, one of the deepest problems in theoretical physics is harmonizing the theory of general relativity, which describes gravitation and applies to large-scale structures (stars, planets, galaxies), with quantum mechanics, which describes the other three fundamental forces acting on the microscopic scale.
A fundamental lesson of general relativity is that there is no fixed spacetime background, as found in Newtonian mechanics and special relativity; the spacetime geometry is dynamical. While easy to grasp in principle, this is the hardest idea to understand about general relativity, and its consequences are profound and not fully explored, even at the classical level. To a certain extent, general relativity can be seen to be a relational theory, in which the only physically relevant information is the relationship between different events in space-time.
On the other hand, quantum mechanics has depended since its invention on a fixed background (non-dynamical) structure. In the case of quantum mechanics, it is time that is given and not dynamical, just as in Newtonian classical mechanics. In relativistic quantum field theory, just as in classical field theory, Minkowski spacetime is the fixed background of the theory. Finally, string theory started out as a generalization of quantum field theory where instead of point particles, string-like objects propagate in a fixed spacetime background. Although string theory had its origins in the study of quark confinement and not of quantum gravity, it was soon discovered that the string spectrum contains the graviton, and that "condensation" of certain vibration modes of strings is equivalent to a modification of the original background.
Quantum field theory on curved (non-Minkowskian) backgrounds, while not a quantum theory of gravity, has shown that some of the core assumptions of quantum field theory cannot be carried over to curved spacetime, let alone to full-blown quantum gravity. In particular, the vacuum, when it exists, is shown to depend on the path of the observer through space-time (see Unruh effect). Also, the field concept is seen to be fundamental over the particle concept (which arises as a convenient way to describe localized interactions). This latter point is not uncontroversial, as it is contrary to the way quantum field theory on Minkowski space is developed by Steven Weinberg's book Quantum Field Theory.
Historically, there have been two reactions to the apparent inconsistency of quantum theories with the necessary background-independence of general relativity. The first is that the geometric interpretation of general relativity is not fundamental, but just an emergent quality of some background-dependent theory. This is explicitly stated, for example, in Steven Weinberg's classic Gravitation and Cosmology textbook. The opposing view is that background-independence is fundamental, and quantum mechanics needs to be generalized to settings where there is no a-priori specified time. The geometric point of view is expounded in the classic text Gravitation, by Misner, Wheeler and Thorne. It is interesting that two books by giants of theoretical physics expressing completely opposite views of the meaning of gravitation were published almost simultaneously in the early 1970s. The reason was that an impasse had been reached, a situation which led Richard Feynman (who himself had made important attempts at understanding quantum gravity) to write, in desperation, "Remind me not to come to any more gravity conferences" in a letter to his wife in the early 1960's. Since then, though, progress was rapid on both fronts, leading ultimately to string theory and loop quantum gravity.
Loop quantum gravity is the fruit of the effort to formulate a background-independent quantum theory. Topological quantum field theory provided an example of background-independent quantum theory, but with no local degrees of freedom, and only finitely many degrees of freedom globally. This is inadequate to describe gravity in 3+1 dimensions, which even in vacuum has local degrees of freedom according to general relativity. In 2+1 dimensions, however, gravity is a topological field theory and it has been successfully quantized in several different ways, including spin networks.
Theories and Proto-theories
There are a number of proposed quantum gravity theories and proto-theories including:\n*String theory\n*Loop quantum gravity of Smolin and Rovelli \n*Noncommutative geometry of Alain Connes\n*Twistor theory of Roger Penrose
Quantum gravity theorists
\n* Abhay Ashtekar -- Author of Ashtekar variables, he is one of the founders of loop quantum gravity.\n* John Baez -- Mathematical physicist.\n* Julian Barbour -- Author of The End of Time, Absolute or Relative Motion? and The Discovery of Dynamics.\n* Martin Bojowald -- \n* Louis Crane -- Theorist.\n* Rodolfo Gambini -- Author of Loops, Knots, Gauge Theories and Quantum Gravity.\n* Brian Greene -- Physicist who is considered one of the world's foremost string theorists. \n* Stephen Hawking -- Leading theoretical physicists.\n* Peter Higgs -- Proposed the 1960's theory of broken symmetry in electroweak theory,\n* Christopher Isham -- Theoretical physicist.\n* Ted Jacobson -- \n* Michio Kaku -- Theoretical physicist with significant contribution to the string field theory.\n* Renate Loll -- \n* Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara -- Theoretical physicist interested in foundational mathematics and quantum mechanics\n* Roger Penrose -- Mathematical physicist and imade the invention of spin networks.\n* Jorge Pullin -- Theoretical physicist.\n* Carlo Rovelli -- Obtained, with Lee Smolin, an explicit basis of states of quantum geometry.\n* Lee Smolin -- Theoretical physicist who has made major contributions to loop quantum gravity. \n* Andrew Strominger -- Theoretical physicist who works on string theory\n* Thomas Thiemann -- Researcher.\n* Edward Witten -- Mathematical physicist who does research in M-theory.
Related topics
\n*Centauro event\n*String theory\n*M-theory
External link
\n*Loop Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli
The famous spoof of
postmodernism by Alan Sokal (see
Sokal Affair) was entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity".
