# Quantum Gravity

This series consists of talks in the area of Quantum Gravity.

## Seminar Series Events/Videos

Currently there are no upcoming talks in this series.

## A Toy Model to Study the Imposition of the Spin Foam Simplicity Constraints

Wednesday Mar 07, 2012
Speaker(s):

We introduce an exactly solvable model to test various proposals for the imposition of the spin foam simplicity constraints. This model is a three-dimensional Holst-Plebanski action for the gauge group SO(4), in which the simplicity constraints mimic the situation of the four-dimensional theory. In particular, the canonical analysis reveals the presence of secondary second class constraints conjugated to the primary ones.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Spinor Quantisation for Complex Ashtekar Variables

Wednesday Feb 29, 2012
Speaker(s):

During the last couple of years Dupuis, Freidel, Livine, Speziale and Tambornino developed a twistorial formulation for loop quantum gravity.
Constructed from Ashtekar--Barbero variables, the formalism is restricted to SU(2) gauge transformations.
In this talk, I perform the generalisation to the full Lorentzian case, that is the group SL(2,C).

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Fractal Space-times Under the Microscope: a RG View on Monte Carlo Data

Wednesday Feb 15, 2012
Speaker(s):

The emergence of fractal features in the microscopic structure of space-time is a common theme in many approaches to quantum gravity. In particular the spectral dimension, which measures the return probability of a fictitious diffusion process on space-time, provides a valuable probe which is easily accessible both in the continuum functional renormalization group and discrete Monte Carlo simulations of the gravitational action.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Continuous Formulation of the Loop Quantum Gravity Phase Space

Wednesday Feb 01, 2012
Speaker(s):

We relate the discrete classical phase space of loop gravity to the continuous phase space of general relativity. Our construction shows that the flux variables do not label a unique geometry, but rather a class of gauge-equivalent geometries. We resolve the tension between the loop gravity geometrical interpretation in terms of singular geometry, and the spin foam interpretation in terms of piecewise-flat geometry, showing that both geometries belong to the same equivalence class.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Scalar Perturbations in Loop Quantum Cosmology

Wednesday Jan 18, 2012

We study the dynamics of the scalar modes of linear perturbations around a flat, homogeneous and isotropic background in loop quantum cosmology.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Tensor Field Theory: Renormalization and One-loop Beta Functions

Thursday Jan 12, 2012
Speaker(s):

Tensor models appear as the higher dimensional extension of the so-called matrix models describing 2D quantum gravity through the sum over triangulations of surfaces. In the light of the recent $1/N$ expansion for these tensor models, we uncover a new class of tensor models for 4D and 3D gravity which are renormalizable at all orders of perturbation theory. An overview of two papers, [arXiv:1111.4997 [hep-th]] and [arXiv:1201.0176 [hep-th]], on the renormalization of these tensor models and their beta function will be given.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Group Field Theory and Simplicial Path Integrals

Wednesday Jan 11, 2012
Speaker(s):

Group field theories show up as a higher dimensional generalization of matrix models in background independent approaches to quantum gravity.
Their Feynman expansion generates simplicial complexes of all topologies weighted by spin foam amplitudes.
In this talk, we will present a dual formulation of these theories as non-commutative quantum fields theories, whose variables have a clear interpretation in terms of simplicial geometry. We will show that it gives a geometrically clear ways to define spin foam models for gravity which can be cast as

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Effective Dynamics of CDT in 2+1 Dimensions

Wednesday Dec 14, 2011
Speaker(s):

To study the continuum limit of a microscopic model of gravity we need microscopic observables that have a clear interpretation in terms of continuum geometry. In general the construction of such observables is notoriously difficult. In the model of causal dynamical triangulations (CDT) it is clear what the microscopic observables are, but at present the only known well-behaved observables with a continuum interpretation are spatial volumes.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Canonical Time Evolution in Simplicial Gravity

Wednesday Dec 07, 2011
Speaker(s):
Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## Quantum Discord and the Quantum Advantage

Thursday Dec 01, 2011
Speaker(s):

Entanglement is a paradigmatic example of quantum correlations, a presumed reason for the superior performance of quantum computation and an obvious divider of states and processes into classical and quantum. In the last decade all these notions were challenged. Entanglement does not capture the totality of non-classical behavior. Quantum discord (in its different versions) is a more general measure of quantum correlations.

Collection/Series:
Scientific Areas:

## RECENT PUBLIC LECTURE

### Amber Straughn: A New Era in Astronomy: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

Speaker: Amber Straughn