Conversations on Quantum Gravity

720 Pages·2021·10.921 MB·English

by  Jácome (Jay) Armas (editor)

ConversationsonQuantumGravity
Theholygrailoftheoreticalphysicsistofindthetheoryofeverythingthatcombinesalltheforces
ofnature,includinggravity.Thisbookaddressesthequestion:Howfararewefromsuchdiscovery?
Overthelastfewdecades,multipleroadstofindingaquantumtheoryofgravityhavebeenproposed
butnoobviousdescriptionofnaturehasemergedinthisdomain.Whatistobemadeofthissituation?
This volume probes the state of the art in this daunting quest of theoretical physics by collecting
criticalinterviewswithnearlyfortyleadingtheoristsinthisfield.Thesebroad-rangingconversations
giveimportantinsightsandcandidopinionsonthevariousapproachestoquantumgravity,including
stringtheory,loopquantumgravity,causalsettheoryandasymptoticsafety.Thisunique,readable
overviewprovidesagatewayintocutting-edgeresearchforstudentsandotherswhowishtoengage
withtheopenproblemofquantumgravity.
Jácome (Jay) Armas is an assistant professor at the Institute of Physics and coordinator
oftheDutchInstituteforEmergentPhenomena,UniversityofAmsterdam.HecompletedhisPhD
attheNielsBohrInstituteandheldpostdoctoralpositionsattheUniversityofBernandUniversité
LibredeBruxelles.Hisresearchinterestsspanfoundationalissuesinstringtheory,hydrodynamics
and black holes, as well as emergent phenomena in quantum and soft matter. In addition to his
researchactivities,heestablishedtheinternationalscienceoutreachplatformandeventseriesScience
&Cocktails.Thisvolume,compiledovermorethantenyearsofmainlyin-personinterviews,ishis
gifttothephysicscommunity.

Conversations on Quantum Gravity
Editedby
JÁCOME (JAY) ARMAS
UniversityofAmsterdam
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107168879
DOI:10.1017/9781316717639
©CambridgeUniversityPress2021
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2021
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Contents
Preface:WhyThisBookandWhyDidItTakeSoLong? pageix
Introduction 1
TheInterviews 11
1 JanAmbjørn 13
2 NimaArkani-Hamed 33
3 AbhayAshtekar 62
4 JandeBoer 101
5 StevenCarlip 122
6 AlainConnes 138
7 RobbertDijkgraaf 160
8 BiancaDittrich 177
9 FayDowker 193
10 LaurentFreidel 210
11 StevenGiddings 226
12 RajeshGopakumar 240
13 DavidJ.Gross 255
14 Gerard’tHooft 275
15 PetrHorˇava 297
16 RenateLoll 320
17 JuanMaldacena 338
vii
viii Contents
18 ShirazMinwalla 351
19 HermannNicolai 373
20 RogerPenrose 391
21 JosephPolchinski 407
22 AlexanderPolyakov 428
23 MartinReuter 440
24 CarloRovelli 463
25 NathanSeiberg 481
26 AshokeSen 493
27 EvaSilverstein 513
28 LeeSmolin 531
29 RafaelSorkin 561
30 AndrewStrominger 588
31 LeonardSusskind 599
32 ThomasThiemann 614
33 CumrunVafa 636
34 ErikVerlinde 651
35 StevenWeinberg 671
36 FrankWilczek 682
37 EdwardWitten 698
Acknowledgements 699
Index 703