Loop and Spin Foam Quantum Gravity: A Brief Guide for Beginners
Year: 2006
Type: preprint
Abstract: We review aspects of loop quantum gravity and spin foam models at an introductory level, with special attention to questions frequently asked by non-specialists. Contributed article to “An assessment of current paradigms in theoretical physics”.1. Quantum Einstein gravity The assumption that Einstein’s classical theory of gravity can be quantised non-perturbatively is at the root of a wide variety of approaches to quantum gravity. The assumption constitutes the basis of several discrete methods [1], such as dynamical triangulations and Regge calculus, but it also implicitly underlies the older Euclidean path integral approach [2, 3] and the somewhat more indirect arguments which suggest that there may exist a non-trivial fixed point of the renormalisation group [4, 5, 6]. Finally, it is the key assumption which underlies loop and spin foam quantum gravity.
Authors: Hermann Nicolai, Kasper Peeters
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3101301499