25 May 2021

Current trends in gravitation Seminar

Location: University Oldenburg - Online
When: 25.5.2021, 16:15 CEST

Speaker: Renate Loll (Radbound University Nijmegen)

Title: Quantum Gravity and Spacetime from Causal Dynamical Triangulations

Abstract: Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) is a candidate theory for quantum gravity, formulated nonperturbatively as the scaling limit of a lattice theory in terms of triangulated, piecewise flat spacetimes. An important feature of this approach is its elegant resolution of the problem of diffeomorphism symmetry in the full, background-free quantum theory. This has enabled the concrete computation of geometric observables in a highly nonperturbative, Planckian regime, an important step in putting quantum gravity on a quantitative footing, and understanding the structure of quantum spacetime. While the need to find quantum observables describing this regime is common to all approaches, CDT provides a concrete testing ground to implement and measure them. In particular, a new notion of quantum Ricci curvature has opened a new window on the sometimes counterintuitive properties of quantum geometry.