Approaches to Quantum Gravity: Toward a New Understanding of Space, Time and Matter

Description

The theory of quantum gravity promises a revolutionary new understanding of gravity and spacetime, valid from microscopic to cosmological distances. Research in this field involves an exciting blend of rigorous mathematics and bold speculations, foundational questions and technical issues. Containing contributions from leading researchers in this field, this book presents the fundamental issues involved in the construction of a quantum theory of gravity and building up a quantum picture of space and time. It introduces the most current approaches to this problem, and reviews their main achievements. Each part ends in questions and answers, in which the contributors explore the merits and problems of the various approaches. This book provides a complete overview of this field from the frontiers of theoretical physics research for graduate students and researchers.

Daniele Oriti is a Researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University, Netherlands, working on non-perturbative quantum gravity, having previously worked at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. He is well known for his results on spin foam models, and is among the leading researchers in the group field theory approach to quantum gravity.