Background independence and field redefinitions in quantum gravity

Abstract

It is generally believed that a full-fledged theory of quantum gravity should exhibit background independence and diffeomorphism invariance. In its most general form, the latter comprises field redefinitions, which are diffeomorphisms in configuration space. We show that any path-integral approach to quantum gravity leads to a tension between these properties, such that they cannot hold simultaneously.

matches version accepted for publication

References in corpus (4)

• Some remarks on the notions of general covariance and background independence
• Background Independent Field Quantization with Sequences of Gravity-Coupled Approximants
• Background Independent Field Quantization with Sequences of Gravity-Coupled Approximants II: Metric Fluctuations
• Covariant singularities in Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Gravity

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Field redefinition invariant Lagrange multiplier formalism
• Lectures in Quantum Gravity
• Fifth forces and frame invariance
• Klein-Gordon and Schrödinger solutions in Lovelock quantum gravity