Is quantum gravity a promising field?

[Fizicks1]

I am a UG student and want to ask about the current state of quantum gravity research.

Is quantum gravity a promising field in physics research right now, as in, is it making much progress in its development?

Also, on a related note, what are the mathematics required in this field? Is it an extremely difficult field and should I just forget about even considering it altogether?

 

[jcsd]

I am a UG student and want to ask about the current state of quantum gravity research.

Is quantum gravity a promising field in physics research right now, as in, is it making much progress in its development?

Also, on a related note, what are the mathematics required in this field? Is it an extremely difficult field and should I just forget about even considering it altogether?

I think I should preface this by saying I'm no expert, but:

As it's seen as one of the holy grails of physics it's always going to be an active area of research.

It depends what you mean by progress. I was reading the section in Wald (written in the eighties) on QG a few weeks ago, what struck me is that from what little I know about modern QG is that the most promising areas in QG today, e.g. string theory and loop quantum gravity were not mentioned I.e. what is studied has changed massively over the last 25-30 years. On the other hand what also struck me is the fact that in terms of creating a useful QG theory it doesn't seem like they're that much closer. Like I say though this is based on idle reading, rather than deep knowledge.

It's the cutting edge of theoretical physics, so it's going to require some of the most advanced maths in physics.