Talks

Noncommutative geometry is a more general formulation of geometry that does not require coordinates to commute. As such it unifies quantum theory and geometry and should appear in any effective theory of quantum gravity. In this general talk we present quantum groups as a microcosm of this unification in the same way that Lie groups are a microcosm of usual geometry, and give a flavour of some of the deeper insights they provide. One of them is the ability to interchange the roles of quantum theory and gravity by `arrow reversal'. Another is that noncommutative spaces typically carry a canonical 1-parameter evolution or intrinsic time created from the fundamental conflict between noncommuting coordinates and differential calculus. In physical terms one could say that quantising space typically has an anomaly for the spatial translation group and this forces the system to evolve. We give an example where we derive Schroedinger's equation in this way.

The causal set -- mathematically a finitary partial order -- is a candidate discrete substratum for spacetime. I will introduce this idea and describe some aspects of causal set kinematics, dynamics, and phenomenology, including, as time permits, a notion of fractal dimension, a (classical) dynamics of stochastic growth, and an idea for explaining some of the puzzling large numbers of cosmology. I will also mention some general insights that have emerged from the study of causal sets, the most recent one concerning the role of intermediate length-scales in discrete spacetime theories.