From Newton to the beginning of this century, physics has had
a solid foundation in a small number of key notions such as
space, time, causality and matter. In spite of substantial
evolution, these notions remained rather stable and
self-consistent. In the first quarter of this century, quantum
theory and general relativity have deeply modified this
foundation. The two theories have obtained solid success and vast
experimental corroboration, and can now be considered established
knowledge. Each of the two theories modifies the conceptual
foundation of classical physics in an (more or less) internally
consistent manner, but we do not have a novel conceptual
foundation capable of supporting
both
theories. This is why we do not yet have a theory capable of
predicting what happens in the physical regime in which both
theories are relevant, the regime of Planck scale phenomena,
cm.
General relativity has taught us not only that space and time share the property of being dynamical with the rest of the physical entities, but also -more crucially- that spacetime location is relational only (see section 5.3). Quantum mechanics has taught us that any dynamical entity is subject to Heisenberg's uncertainty at small scale. Therefore, we need a relational notion of a quantum spacetime in order to understand Planck scale physics.
Thus, for a relativist, the problem of quantum gravity is the
problem of bringing a vast conceptual revolution, begun with
quantum mechanics and with general relativity, to a conclusion
and to a new synthesis.
In this synthesis the notions of space and time need to be
deeply reshaped in order to take into account what we have
learned with both our present ``fundamental'' theories.
Unlike perturbative or nonperturbative string theory, loop quantum gravity is formulated without a background spacetime. Loop quantum gravity is thus a genuine attempt to grasp what quantum spacetime is at the fundamental level. Accordingly, the notion of spacetime that emerges from the theory is profoundly different from the one on which conventional quantum field theory or string theory is based.
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Loop Quantum Gravity
Carlo Rovelli http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1998-1 © Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351 Problems/Comments to livrev@aei-potsdam.mpg.de |