scholarly journals SPECTRAL GEOMETRY AND CAUSALITY

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2693-2708 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMÁŠ KOPF

For a physical interpretation of a theory of quantum gravity, it is necessary to recover classical space–time, at least approximately. However, quantum gravity may eventually provide classical space–times by giving spectral data similar to those appearing in noncommutative geometry, rather than by giving directly a space–time manifold. It is shown that a globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifold can be given by spectral data. A new phenomenon in the context of spectral geometry is observed: causal relationships. The employment of the causal relationships of spectral data is shown to lead to a highly efficient description of Lorentzian manifolds, indicating the possible usefulness of this approach. Connections to free quantum field theory are discussed for both motivation and physical interpretation. It is conjectured that the necessary spectral data can be generically obtained from an effective field theory having the fundamental structures of generalized quantum mechanics: a decoherence functional and a choice of histories.

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (22n23) ◽  
pp. 2359-2365 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMÁŠ KOPF

Spacetime, understood as a globally hyperbolic manifold, may be characterized by spectral data using a 3+1 splitting into space and time, a description of space by spectral triples and by employing causal relationships, as proposed earlier. Here, it is proposed to use the Hadamard condition of quantum field theory as a smoothness principle.


Universe ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Folkert Kuipers ◽  
Xavier Calmet

In this paper, we discuss singularity theorems in quantum gravity using effective field theory methods. To second order in curvature, the effective field theory contains two new degrees of freedom which have important implications for the derivation of these theorems: a massive spin-2 field and a massive spin-0 field. Using an explicit mapping of this theory from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame, we show that the massive spin-2 field violates the null energy condition, while the massive spin-0 field satisfies the null energy condition, but may violate the strong energy condition. Due to this violation, classical singularity theorems are no longer applicable, indicating that singularities can be avoided, if the leading quantum corrections are taken into account.


Universe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco de Cesare

We illustrate a general reconstruction procedure for mimetic gravity. Focusing on a bouncing cosmological background, we derive general properties that must be satisfied by the function f(□ϕ) implementing the limiting curvature hypothesis. We show how relevant physical information can be extracted from power-law expansions of f in different regimes, corresponding e.g., to the very early universe or to late times. Our results are then applied to two specific models reproducing the cosmological background dynamics obtained in group field theory and in loop quantum cosmology, and we discuss the possibility of using this framework as providing an effective field theory description of quantum gravity. We study the evolution of anisotropies near the bounce, and discuss instabilities of scalar perturbations. Furthermore, we provide two equivalent formulations of mimetic gravity: one in terms of an effective fluid with exotic properties, the other featuring two distinct time-varying gravitational “constants” in the cosmological equations.


Author(s):  
Nicolás Valdés-Meller

We argue that quantum gravity is nonlocal, first by recalling well-known arguments that support this idea and then by focusing on a point not usually emphasized: that making a conventional effective field theory (EFT) for quantum gravity is particularly difficult, and perhaps impossible in principle. This inability to realize an EFT comes down to the fact that gravity itself sets length scales for a problem: when integrating out degrees of freedom above some cutoff, the effective metric one uses will be different, which will itself re-define the cutoff. We also point out that even if the previous problem is fixed, naïvely applying EFT in gravity can lead to problems — we give a particular example in the case of black holes.


2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 663-671
Author(s):  
TRISTAN HÜBSCH

The Hilbert spaces of supersymmetric systems admit symmetries which are often related to the topology and geometry of the (target) field-space. Here, we study certain (2, 2)-supersymmetric systems in two-dimensional space–time which are closely related to superstring models. They all turn out to possess some hitherto unexploited and geometrically and topologically unobstructed symmetries, providing new tools for studying the topology and geometry of superstring target space–times, and so the dynamics of the effective field theory in these.


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jané Kondev

We develop a coarse-graining procedure for two-dimensional models of fluctuating loops by mapping them to interface models. The result is an effective field theory for the scaling limit of loop models, which is found to be a Liouville theory with imaginary couplings. This field theory is completely specified by geometry and conformal invariance alone, and it leads to exact results for the critical exponents and the conformal charge of loop models. A physical interpretation of the Dotsenko-Fateev screening charge is found.


2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. JACK NG ◽  
H. VAN DAM

Neutrices are additive groups of negligible functions that do not contain any constants except 0. Their calculus was developed by van der Corput and Hadamard in connection with asymptotic series and divergent integrals. We apply neutrix calculus to quantum field theory, obtaining finite renormalizations in the loop calculations. For renormalizable quantum field theories, we recover all the usual physically observable results. One possible advantage of the neutrix framework is that effective field theories can be accommodated. Quantum gravity theories will then appear to be more manageable.


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