Quantum Gravity

In the context of perturbative quantum field theory (QFT), the addition of quadratic-curvature invariants to the Einstein-Hilbert action makes it possible to achieve strict renormalizability in four dimensions. This theory exhibits unusual features due to an additional massive spin-2 ghost which, in general, may cause instabilities. In the first part of this talk, we focus on the possibility of giving up locality as a way to avoid ghost-like degrees of freedom and provide a critical assessment on open questions in nonlocal theories of gravity, such as the uniqueness problem. In the second part of the talk, we take a step back and argue that, despite the presence of the ghost and actually thanks to it, Quadratic Gravity can still provide a consistent local perturbative QFT description of the gravitational interaction and explain new physics beyond Einstein's general relativity, e.g., it offers a natural explanation for the inflationary phase. Finally, we argue that a type of nonlocality in gravity can still occur non-perturbatively and show that a new lower bound on scattering amplitudes indicates that the gravitational interaction is intrinsically nonlocal if black holes form.

A scalar field theory with 4-derivative kinetic terms and 4-derivative cubic and quartic couplings is presented as a proxy for quadratic gravity. Unitarity and positivity appear as the key issues in the scalar field theory, just as they do in quadratic gravity. We have extended some calculations to show how these issues are resolved in the high energy limit of the theory. The results also show how it is that differential cross sections can have good high energy behaviour.

Based on quantitative results on quantum observables in a Planckian regime, I will argue that using dynamical lattices `a la CDT to construct and explore the nonperturbative path integral over Lorentzian geometries is a bona-fide quantum field-theoretic "method" rather than an "approach" to quantum gravity. Its most important features are universality, unitarity and the presence of powerful numerical tools to directly simulate and measure a chunk of quantum spacetime of about 20 Planck lengths across. This small observational window is a preferred place to look for clues to what quantum gravity is all about. Despite the diffeomorphism-invariant and nonlocal character of the observables, qualitatively new and surprising UV properties have already been discovered, and compatibility checks with semiclassical expectations for several cosmological observables ("classical limit") have been performed successfully. The underlying new mathematics is that of random geometry and beyond-Riemannian geometry.

In my talk, I'll review the key idea underlying asymptotically safe quantum gravity, before giving an overview of the current status and open questions. I'll then spotlight three challenges. The first challenge is how to test quantum gravity and I'll advocate that by linking quantum gravity to particle physics and cosmology, we can probe quantum gravity at all scales. The second challenge is how to connect to other ideas about quantum spacetime and I'll discuss effective asymptotic safety as a way to link to, e.g., string theory. The third challenge is the status of global symmetries and I'll discuss what we know about the preservation of global symmetries in asymptotic safety and what this implies for a broader perspective on the question. --- The presenter will be joining via Zoom for this talk.

The Celestial Holography program encompasses recent efforts to understand the flat space hologram in terms of a CFT living on the celestial sphere. A key development instigating these efforts came from understanding how soft limits of scattering encode infinite dimensional symmetry enhancements corresponding to the asymptotic symmetry group of the bulk spacetime. Historically, the construction of the bulk-boundary dual pair has followed bottom up approach matching symmetries on both sides. Recently, however, there has been exciting progress in formulating top down descriptions using insights from twisted holography. We review salient aspects of the celestial construction, the status of the dictionary, and active research directions.

At first sight, it seems that almost any QFT, seen as a low-energy effective field theory (EFT), can be coupled to gravity -- simply add an Einstein-Hilbert term, change all derivatives by covariant ones, and you're done. However, a growing body of evidence coming from String Theory compactifications, general properties of black hole evaporation, and rigorous results in holography, suggests that the opposite is true. We can work out the hidden constraints that quantum gravity consistency imposes in the matter sector systematically, an approach that receives the colourful name of "The Swampland Program". I will briefly review the program, its motivation, current results, and long-term goals.

I will review implications of the AdS/CFT correspondence for quantum gravity, paying particular attention to holographic RG flows and the processing of information. Deformed hyperbolic geometries correspond to boundary field theory RG flows. Conversely, as I will exemplify using the recent approach of discrete holography, boundary RG flows may be used to reconstruct the bulk spacetime, for instance via tensor networks. I will discuss recent approaches towards including gravity dynamics into this reconstruction process. --- The presenter will be joining via Zoom for this talk.

I will briefly review the key concepts underlying the Effective Field Theory of General Relativity, and give a couple of examples of how it works. Then I will describe seven lessons which can be extracted from the theory. Finally I discuss some of the limitations of the EFT framework.

 

Motivated by the static patch of de Sitter space, we discuss timelike surfaces in general relativity and the initial boundary value problem. We consider the Dirichlet problem and a conformal version thereof. Time permitting we discuss some ideas in lower dimensions.

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Zoom link https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98357788662?pwd=b3lHS3Q3T2xkNm53SkR3QVVvTGJMdz09