Spontaneous Dimensional Reduction in Quantum Gravity

Abstract

Hints from a number of different approaches to quantum gravity point to a phenomenon of "spontaneous dimensional reduction" to two spacetime dimensions near the Planck scale. I examine the physical meaning of the term "dimension" in this context, summarize the evidence for dimensional reduction, and discuss possible physical explanations.

Third award, 2016 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Contest

References in corpus (8)

• Spectral Dimension of the Universe in Quantum Gravity at a Lifshitz Point
• Fractal properties of quantum spacetime
• The Semiclassical Limit of Causal Dynamical Triangulations
• Diffusion on $\kappa$-Minkowski space
• Dimensional flow in discrete quantum geometries
• Vacuum Fluctuations and the Small Scale Structure of Spacetime
• Fractal Space-Time from Spin-Foams
• The cosmological billiard attractor

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Hořava Gravity at a Lifshitz Point: A Progress Report
• Upper bound on the Abelian gauge coupling from asymptotic safety
• Status of the asymptotic safety paradigm for quantum gravity and matter
• Synchronization in Network Geometries with Finite Spectral Dimension
• Introducing Quantum Ricci Curvature
• Is scale-invariance in gauge-Yukawa systems compatible with the graviton?
• Regular Black Hole Interior Spacetime Supported by Three-Form Field
• Noncommutative fields and the short-scale structure of spacetime
• On the UV dimensions of Loop Quantum Gravity
• Signal propagation on $\kappa$-Minkowski spacetime and non-local two-point functions
• Echoes of Asymptotic Silence in Causal Set Quantum Gravity
• Yang-Mills Casimir wormholes in $D=2+1$
• CDT and Cosmology
• Dimensional reduction in manifold-like causal sets
• What is General Relativity?
• Modified dispersion relations, inflation and scale invariance
• Testing a Conjecture On Quantum Chromodynamics
• A short note on dynamics and degrees of freedom in $2d$ classical gravity