Toward a Background Independent Quantum Theory of Gravity

Abstract

Any canonical quantum theory can be understood to arise from the compatibility of the statistical geometry of distinguishable observations with the canonical Poisson structure of Hamiltonian dynamics. This geometric perspective offers a novel, background independent non-perturbative formulation of quantum gravity. We invoke a quantum version of the equivalence principle, which requires both the statistical and symplectic geometries of canonical quantum theory to be fully dynamical quantities. Our approach sheds new light on such basic issues of quantum gravity as the nature of observables, the problem of time, and the physics of the vacuum. In particular, the observed numerical smallness of the cosmological constant can be rationalized in this approach.

Awarded Honorable Mention, 2004 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition; 8 pages, LaTeX

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Time and M-theory
• Fine Structure of Dark Energy and New Physics
• Why there is something so close to nothing: towards a fundamental theory of the cosmological constant
• Entropy In The Present And Early Universe: New Small Parameters And Dark Energy Problem
• On the Origin of Time and the Universe
• On non-equilibrium physics and string theory
• Modeling Time's Arrow
• Quantum Theory at Planck Scale, Limiting Values, Deformed Gravity and Dark Energy Problem
• The Big Bang as the Ultimate Traffic Jam
• Biorthogonal Quantum Mechanics: Super-Quantum Correlations and Expectation Values without Definite Probabilities
• Quantum Systems based upon Galois Fields: from Sub-quantum to Super-quantum Correlations
• Is Quantum Gravity a Super-Quantum Theory?