Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 APS April Meeting
Volume 54, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, May 2–5, 2009; Denver, Colorado
Session G5: Developments in Quantum Gravity |
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Sponsoring Units: GGR Chair: Jorge Pullin, Louisana State University Room: Governor's Square 15 |
Sunday, May 3, 2009 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
G5.00001: Einstein Prize Talk: The Quantum Origin of Our Classical Universe Invited Speaker: A striking feature of our indeterministic quantum universe is the wide range of time, place, and scale on which the deterministic laws of classical physics hold. This talk will describe the origin of this quasiclassical realm in a quantum cosmology based on Hawking's no-boundary quantum state of the universe. Classical spacetime is the key to the quasiclassical realm, and the no-boundary probabilities for different classical spacetimes lead to different predictions for cosmological observations today. In a simple model, these probabilities favor a minimum amount of matter, a long period of inflation, small fluctuations such as those seen in the CMB, but significant fluctuations away from homogeneity on very large scales. Probabilities will also be discussed of early properties such as whether the universe was singular or bounced at a small radius, and the direction of the arrow of time. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, May 3, 2009 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
G5.00002: Spin Foam models: models of quantum space time Invited Speaker: I will give an overview of spin foam models which describe the dynamics of quantum gravity in a background independent context. I will focus especially and the recent developments which concerns the construction of these models in 4 dimensional gravity and present some of the key results obtained in this context like the proof of the semi-classical limit and the relationship with loop quantum gravity and SU(2) spin network states. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, May 3, 2009 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
G5.00003: The Formulation of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime Invited Speaker: The usual formulations of quantum field theory in Minkowski spacetime make crucial use of Poincare symmetry, positivity of total energy, and the existence of a unique, Poincare invariant vacuum state. These and other key features of quantum field theory do not generalize straightforwardly to curved spacetime. We discuss the conceptual obstacles to formulating quantum field theory in curved spacetime and how they can be overcome. [Preview Abstract] |
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