Aside from the obvious statement that it should be a theory capable of unifying general relativity and quantum field theory, not much is known about the true nature of quantum gravity.
New ideas - and there are many of them for this is an exciting field of research - often diverge to a degree where it seems impossible to decide in which of the many possible direction(s) the ongoing developments should be further sustained.
The division of the book in two (overlapping) parts reflects the duality between the physical vision and the mathematical construction. The former is represented by tutorial reviews on non-commutative geometry, on space-time discretization and renormalization and on gauge field path integrals. The latter one by lectures on cohomology, on stochastic geometry and on mathematical tools for the effective action in quantum gravity.
The book will benefit everyone working or entering the field of quantum gravity research.
Author(s): J.M. Gracia-Bondía (auth.), Bernhelm Booß-Bavnbek, G. Esposito, Matthias Lesch (eds.)
Series: Lecture Notes in Physics 807
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 350
Tags: Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory;Convex and Discrete Geometry
Front Matter....Pages i-xix
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Notes on “Quantum Gravity” and Noncommutative Geometry....Pages 3-58
Quantum Gravity as Sum over Spacetimes....Pages 59-124
Lectures on Quantization of Gauge Systems....Pages 125-190
Front Matter....Pages 191-191
Mathematical Tools for Calculation of the Effective Action Effective Action in Quantum Gravity....Pages 193-259
Lectures on Cohomology, T-Duality, and Generalized Geometry....Pages 261-311
Stochastic Geometry and Quantum Gravity: Some Rigorous Results....Pages 313-335
Front Matter....Pages 336-336
Steps Towards Quantum Gravity and the Practice of Science: Will the Merger of Mathematics and Physics Work?....Pages 339-354
Back Matter....Pages 355-359
