Talks

My field is the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular Bohmian mechanics, a non-relativistic theory that is empirically equivalent to standard quantum mechanics while solving all of its paradoxes in an elegant and simple way, essentially by assuming that particles have trajectories. Bohmian mechanics possesses a straightforward generalization to relativistic space-time, be it flat or curved, if one assumption against the spirit of relativity is granted: the existence of a "time foliation", i.e., a physical object mathematically represented by a slicing of space-time into spacelike 3-surfaces, which evolves according to a Lorentz-invariant law. On the basis of this kind of theory, describing particles in a background 4-geometry, I propose an extension in which the space-time geometry is dynamically generated, as in general relativity. Whether my model is empirically equivalent to any known type of quantum gravity I don't know. In this model, there is a Lorentzian metric on configuration-space-time, evolving according to the higher-dimensional analog of the Einstein field equation. The 4-metric is obtained from the configuration-space-time metric and the actual particle configuration. Thus, this Bohm-like model generates (up to diffeomorphisms) a 4-metric and particle world lines from a given wave function.

Studies of ${cal N}=4$ super Yang Mills operators with large R-charge have shown that, in the planar limit, the problem of computing their dimensions can be viewed as a certain spin chain. These spin chains have fundamental ``magnon\'\' excitations which obey a dispersion relation that is periodic in the momentum of the magnons. This result for the dispersion relation was also shown to hold at arbitrary \'t Hooft coupling. Here we identify these magnons on the string theory side and we show how to reconcile a periodic dispersion relation with the continuum worldsheet description. The crucial idea is that the momentum is interpreted in the string theory side as a certain geometrical angle. We use these results to compute the energy of a spinning string. We also show that the symmetries that determine the dispersion relation and that constrain the S-matrix are the same in the gauge theory and the string theory. We compute the overall S-matrix at large \'t Hooft coupling using the string description and we find that it agrees with an earlier conjecture. We also find an infinite number of two magnon bound states at strong coupling, while at weak coupling this number is finite.

We introduce a new top down approach to canonical quantum gravity, called Algebraic Quantum Gravity (AQG): The quantum kinematics of AQG is determined by an abstract $*-$algebra generated by a countable set of elementary operators labelled by an algebraic graph. The quantum dynamics of AQG is governed by a single Master Constraint operator. While AQG is inspired by Loop Quantum Gravity LQG), it differs drastically from it because in AQG there is fundamentally no topology or differential structure. The missing information about the topology and differential structure of the spacetime manifold as well as about the background metric to be approximated is supplied by coherent states and is therefore only available in the semiclassical sector of the theory. Given such data, the corresponding coherent state defines a sector in the Hilbert space of AQG which can be identified with a usual QFT on the given manifold and background. Thus, AQG contains QFT on all curved spacetimes at once, possibly has something to say about topology change and provides the contact with the familiar low energy physics. We will show that AQG admits a semiclassical limit whose infinitesimal gauge symmetry generators agree with the ones of General Relativity.