Quantum Gravity

We review recent efforts to turn the cosmological constant into a dynamical variable without an ungainly proliferation of free parameters. In a cosmological setting where parity invariance is imposed (along with homogeneity and isotropy) this leads to phenomenological disaster. However, in this theory it is possible to construct parity violating Friedman models due to torsion, a re-enactment of "Cartan's spiral staircase". We examine the Hamiltonian structure of the 2 branches (parity compliant and parity violating) and conclude that they must correspond to different theories, with different numbers of degrees of freedom. Parity violation may save these models phenomenologically, giving observational relevance to the Pontryagin invariant (and possibly the Immirzi parameter) in cosmology.

I will discuss the problem of an observer's S-matrix in de Sitter space, i.e. the mapping between fields on the initial and final horizons of a de Sitter static patch. I will show how the S-matrix of free massless fields can be packaged in a spinor-helicity language. This involves “cheating” the static patch’s painfully low symmetry, by relating each horizon separately to global, de Sitter-invariant data.

I will then discuss the important special case of higher-spin gravity in de Sitter, and argue that higher-spin symmetry prevents any corrections to the free S-matrix, except in the “soft" sector of zero frequencies.

If General Relativity emerges from quantum gravity, then general covariance, the gauge invariance of GR, will emerge with it. We can ask, within any approach to the problem of quantum gravity, what is the “precursor” principle or precept that will give rise to — or manifest itself as — general covariance in the large scale semi-classical approximation?
Given how important the understanding of general covariance (or lack of it!) was in the development of GR we might expect that thinking about this question will be similarly important in the development of quantum gravity.
I will explain how general covariance is seen from the perspective of the causal set approach to quantum gravity and describe recent progress in creating a framework for causal set dynamics that is completely covariant and does not refer to any gauge degrees of freedom at all.

In this talk I will report on recent progress in building QFT models on causal sets. The framework I'm using is that of perturbative algebraic quantum field theory (pAQFT). It was developed for rigorous study of perturbative QFT in the continuum, but can also be applied in the situation where spacetime is replaced by a discrete structure. Causality plays a key role in pAQFT, so it is natural to apply it to causets. Construction of models in this framework is purely algebraic and one does not need to specify a state or a Hilbert space representation until the final step, in which correlation functions are computed.

Canonical quantization is not well suited to quantize gravity, while affine quantization is. For those unfamiliar with affine quantization the talk will include a primer. This procedure is then applied to deal with three nonrenormalizable, field theoretical, problems of increasing difficulty, the last one being general relativity itself.

We derive an effective Hamiltonian constraint for the Schwarzschild geometry starting from the full loop quantum gravity Hamiltonian constraint and computing its expectation value on coherent states sharply peaked around a spherically symmetric geometry. We use this effective Hamiltonian to study the interior region of a Schwarzschild black hole, where a homogeneous foliation is available. Descending from the full theory, our effective Hamiltonian preserves all relevant information about the graph structure of quantum space and encapsulates all dominant quantum gravity corrections to spatially homogeneous geometries at the effective level. It carries significant differences from the effective Hamiltonian postulated in the context of minisuperspace loop quantization models in the previous literature. We show how, for several geometrically and physically well motivated choices of coherent states, the classical black hole singularity is replaced by a homogeneous expanding Universe. The resultant geometries have no significant deviations from the classical Schwarzschild geometry in the pre-bounce sub-Planckian curvature regime, evidencing the fact that large quantum effects are avoided in these models. In all cases, we find no evidence of a white hole horizon formation. However, various aspects of the post-bounce effective geometry depend on the choice of quantum states. Finally, we show how a de Sitter Universe extending the classical spacetime past the singularity can be recovered by means of the simplicity constraint.

Trisections were introduced by Gay and Kirby in 2013 as a way to study 4-manifolds. They are similar in spirit to a common tool in a lower dimension: Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds. In both cases, one understands a manifold by examining the ways that standard building blocks can be put together. They both also have the advantage of changing problems about manifolds into problems about diagrams of curves on surfaces. This talk will be a relaxed introduction to these decompositions.

Tensor models exhibit a melonic large $N$ limit: this is a non trivial family of Feynman graphs that can be explicitly summed in many situations. In $d$ dimensions, they give rise to a new family of conformal field theories and provide interesting examples of the renormalization group flow from a free theory in the UV to a melonic large $N$ CFT in the IR. 

We consider here a bosonic tensor model in rank three and $d<4$ dimensions. After giving a short introduction to tensor models, I will present the renormalization group flow of the model. At leading order in $1/N$ but non perturbatively in the coupling constants, we found a real and infrared fixed point.

What is the black hole in quantum mechanics? We examine this problem in a self-consistent manner. First, we analyze time evolution of a 4D spherically symmetric collapsing matter including the back reaction of particle creation that occurs in the time-dependent spacetime. As a result, a compact high-density star with no horizon or singularity is formed and eventually evaporates. This is a quantum black hole. We can construct a self-consistent solution of the semi-classical Einstein equation showing this structure. In fact, we construct the metric, evaluate the expectation values of the energy momentum tensor, and prove the self-consistency under some assumptions. Large pressure appears in the angular direction to support this black hole, which is consistent with 4D Weyl anomaly. When the black hole is formed adiabatically in the heat bath, integrating the entropy density over the interior volume reproduces the area law. 

Tensor Models provide one of the calculationally simplest approaches to defining a partition function for random discrete geometries. The continuum limit of these discrete models then provides a background-independent construction of a partition function of continuum geometry, which are candadates for quantum gravity. The blue-print for this approach is provided by the matrix model approach to two-dimensional quantum gravity. The past ten years have seen a lot of progress using (un)colored tensor models to describe state sums if discrete geometries in more than two dimensions. However, so far one has not yet been able to find a continuum limit of these models that corresponds geometries with more than two continuum dimensions. This problem can be studied systematically using exact renormalization group techniques. In this talk I will report on joint work with Astrid Eichhorn, Antonio Perreira, Joseph Ben Geloun, Daniele Oriti, Johannes Lumma, Alicia Castro and Victor Mu\~noz in this direction. In a separate part of the talk I will explain that the renormalization group is not only a tool to help investigating the continuum limit, but that it in fact also provides a stand-alone approach to quantum gravity. In particular, I will show how scaling relations follow from cylidrical consistency relations.

We derive Schwarzian correlation functions using the BF formulation of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, where bilocal operators are interpreted as boundary-anchored Wilson lines in the bulk. Crossing Wilson lines are associated with OTO-correlators and give rise to 6j-symbols. We discuss the semi-classical bulk black hole physics contained within the correlation functions.

Extensions including bulk defects related to the other coadjoint orbits are discussed.

Gravity theories naturally allow for edge states generated by non-trivial boundary-condition preserving diffeomorphisms. I present a specific set of boundary conditions inspired by near horizon physics, show that it leads to soft hair excitations of black hole solutions and discuss implications for black hole entropy.