Foundations of Space and Time (edited by Ellis et al, to appear)

[marcus]

Some of the draft chapters of this book are already on Arxiv. The book is scheduled to appear May 2011.
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521114400

Many if not all of these were papers presented in a conference in Capetown honoring George Ellis on his 70th birthday. He wanted to bring together different QG research communities. Cambridge University Press was one of the sponsors of the conference and decided to collect the papers into a book. (It's possible there will be a second volume, since more papers were presented than are shown in this listing of the chapters.)

In this list of the book's chapters, I will highlight the ones which I either found or remember already having seen on Arxiv. Nearly the whole book is available in draft chapter version online! Just look the blue papers up on Arxiv by author and a word or two from the title.

1. The problem with quantum gravity Jeff Murugan, Amanda Weltman and George F. R. Eliis;

2. A dialogue on the nature of gravity Thanu Padmanabhan;

3. Effective theories and modifications of gravity Cliff Burgess;

4. The small scale structure of spacetime Steve Carlip;

5. Ultraviolet divergences in supersymmetric theories Kellog Stelle; (see 0901.4661)

6. Cosmological quantum billiards Axel Kleinschmidt and Hermann Nicolai;

7. Progress in RNS string theory and pure spinors Dimitri Polyakov; (see 0906.3663)

8. Recent trends in superstring phenomenology Massimo Bianchi;

9. Emergent spacetime Robert de Mello Koch and Jeff Murugan;

10. Loop quantum gravity Hanno Sahlmann;

11. Loop quantum gravity and cosmology Martin Bojowald;

12. The microscopic dynamics of quantum space as a group field theory Daniele Oriti;

13. Causal dynamical triangulations and the quest for quantum gravity Jan Ambjørn, J. Jurkiewicz and Renate Loll;

14. Proper time is stochastic time in 2D quantum gravity Jan Ambjorn, Renate Loll, Y. Watabiki, W. Westra and S. Zohren;

15. Logic is to the quantum as geometry is to gravity Rafael Sorkin;

16. Causal sets: discreteness without symmetry breaking Joe Henson; (see gr-qc/0605006)

17. The Big Bang, quantum gravity, and black-hole information loss Roger Penrose;

Index.
================

Where the article did not seem available on line, I sometimes put a pointer to one with similar title by same author.)

 

[marcus]

The book, Foundations of Space and Time: Reflections on Quantum Gravity, was cited as reference [16] in a paper that just appeared, by Ellis, Marugan, van Elst.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1196

Here is the last paragraph of their new paper, where they cite the book:

"...Overall, this proposal does not solve the issue of why the cosmological constant has the value it has today; but it does resolve the issue of why it does not have the huge value implied by the obvious use of the QFT prediction for the vacuum energy in conjunction with the EFE (the patently incorrect result obtained in this way is a major crisis for theoretical physics, because it suggests a profound contradiction between QFT and GR).

The present proposal also indicates a route to investigate in terms of quantum gravity theory: whatever full theory of quantum gravity is eventually arrived at, whether based in the string theory approach, loop quantum gravity, causal dynamical triangulations, or whatever [16], it should have as its field theory limit a spin-2 theory where the trace-free nature of the graviton leads to an effective trace-free version of Einstein’s Field Equations."

In case anyone is curious about the new Ellis et al paper here is the abstract:

The gravitational effect of the vacuum
George F. R. Ellis, Jeff Murugan, Henk van Elst
(Submitted on 6 Aug 2010)
"The quantum field theoretic prediction for the vacuum energy density leads to a value for the effective cosmological constant that is incorrect by between 60 to 120 orders of magnitude. We review an old proposal of replacing Einstein's Field Equations by their trace-free part (the Trace-Free Einstein Equations), together with an independent assumption of energy--momentum conservation by matter fields. We confirm that while this does not solve the fundamental issue of why the cosmological constant has the value it has, it is indeed a viable theory that resolves the problem of the discrepancy between the vacuum energy density and the observed value of the cosmological constant. We also point out that this proposal may have a valid quantum field theory basis in terms of a spin-2 field theory for the graviton interaction with matter."

 

[marcus]

That Ellis 70th birthday workshop on QG (an "Ellisfest") happened just last year. We discussed it a little. See for example this post:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=2274724#post2274724
and some others around there in the same thread.
Here's the conference website:
http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/~jeff/Quantum_Gravity/About.html

Now that I look at the speakers list it looks to me like that one volume, with the table of contents shown on the Cambridge Press page, will be complete. It has everybody, or very close to everybody.

I hope that they keep to schedule, and that the book really does come out by May 2011.
Nearly every chapter seems already posted in draft or preprint form, so they could have it ready by then.

=====================

An interesting thing that you can see from the Conference website, a personal statement by George Ellis, and also from the Cambridge Press catalog description of the book, is that Ellis thinks the division between string and non-string QG communities is counterproductive.
In this workshop he wanted very much to bring them together and start an exchange of idea. It's obvious that Ellis, who is a revered elder statesman of GR and cosmology, who co-authored a classic, The Large Scale Structure of Space Time, with Hawking back around 1960, made an effort to start a constructive dialog. I have no way of telling how successful that was. However I will quote the publishers description of the book, which gives some hint as to the Ellis' intent.

==quote Cambridge webpage http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521114400 ==
After almost a century, the field of quantum gravity remains as difficult and inspiring as ever. Today, it finds itself a field divided, with two major contenders dominating: string theory,...; and loop quantum gravity, ... However, there are now a number of other innovative schemes providing promising new avenues. Encapsulating the latest debates on this topic, this book details the different approaches to understanding the very nature of space and time. It brings together leading researchers in each of these approaches to quantum gravity to explore these competing possibilities in an open way. Its comprehensive coverage explores all the current approaches to solving the problem of quantum gravity, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, to give researchers and graduate students an up-to-date view of the field.

• Details the latest debates on understanding the very nature of space and time • Leading researchers examine the current approaches to solving the problem of quantum gravity, addressing their strengths and weaknesses • Gives an up-to-date view of the field
==endquote==

 

[marcus]

Some of the draft chapters of this book are already on Arxiv. The book is scheduled to appear May 2011.
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521114400
...

Cambridge Press sped up the schedule for publication on this one. The catalogue page now says it will appear in March 2011.
Let me know if you need help finding particular preprints. I highlighted in blue the book's chapters which are available in preprint form on line.

The publication schedule of another book bearing on the quantum structure of space and time has slipped remarkably, as if the book were being completely rewritten and re-edited. This is "Beyond the Big Bang" edited by R. Vaas, to be published by Springer:
http://www.springer.com/astronomy/cosmology/book/978-3-540-71422-4
It is a massive 600-page collection of articles on pre-bang scenarios by about 20 authors. The projected publication date has now slipped to June 2011.

 

[xristy]

With links:

1. The problem with quantum gravity Jeff Murugan, Amanda Weltman and George F. R. Eliis;

2. http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.0839"

3. http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.4295"

4. http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.1136" ;

5. Ultraviolet divergences in supersymmetric theories Kellog Stelle; (see 0901.4661)

6. http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.0854" ;

7. Progress in RNS string theory and pure spinors Dimitri Polyakov; (see 0906.3663)

8. http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1799" ;

9. http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.4817" ;

10. http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.4188" ;

11. Loop quantum gravity and cosmology Martin Bojowald;

12. The microscopic dynamics of quantum space as a group field theory Daniele Oriti;

13. http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0352" ;

14. http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.4211" ;

15. http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.1226" ;

16. Causal sets: discreteness without symmetry breaking Joe Henson; (see gr-qc/0605006)

17. The Big Bang, quantum gravity, and black-hole information loss Roger Penrose;

Index.

 

[marcus]

Xristy, thanks for getting all these links: It's a contribution to the common good, plus the book's appearance is an encouraging event. George Ellis is a leading elder and he's serious about wanting different branches of QG to get together and talk and share ideas.

It's something of a first effort at getting that to happen. Daniele Oriti collected chapters for a book (also published by Cambridge Press) called Approaches to Quantum Gravity: Towards a New Understanding of Space, Time, and Matter. He got chapters by prominent experts string and non-string alike. But that was not a conference where the authors actually met and talked with each other. They shared the same book, between the same covers. And Oriti included some written Q&A discussion.

So Oriti's book, published a couple of years ago, was a first effort of its kind. And now this Ellis book is coming out, and being combined with a workshop it kind of raises the ante. Let's see what comes next.

Anyway, thanks!