Refreshing paper by Rovelli (nods to filmmaker Khrzhanovsky)

[marcus]

Repeatedly Rovelli posts papers that are not boring.
This one shows a lot of progress towards the GR limit and also a Feynman-style presentation with what I think is wide appeal

But first, there is this Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Khrzhanovsky
who is currently making a $10 million budget documentary about Lev Landau. Interesting character. 1908-1968. Nobel condensed matter.

Could this Ilya be the same Ilya who is thanked for hospitality in the acknowledgment section of Rovelli's paper? And what significance the date 1942?

Here's the paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.1939
Simple model for quantum general relativity from loop quantum gravity
Carlo Rovelli
8 pages, 3 figures
(Submitted on 10 Oct 2010)
"New progress in loop gravity has lead to a simple model of 'general-covariant quantum field theory'. I sum up the definition of the model in self-contained form, in terms accessible to those outside the subfield. I emphasize its formulation as a generalized topological quantum field theory with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, and its relation to lattice theory. I list the indications supporting the conjecture that the model is related to general relativity and UV finite."

Andrei Losev is also thanked:
http://arxiv.org/find/hep-th/1/au:+Losev_A/0/1/0/all/0/1
some 60 papers---much elegant math (Riemann-Roch Hirzbruch TQFT...) plenty of stringery plenty of algebra, algebraic geometry, topology

Maybe this Ilya is not the filmmaker Ilya but some surprise departure from the everyday is indicated---or is it an unlikely concatenation of typographical errors?

 

[MTd2]

"I warmly thank Ilya Khrzhanovsky and the Kapitza
Institute in Kharkov for the hospitality during October
1942, and in particularly Andrey Losev, for the engaging
conversations during this visit, which have inspired this
paper".

During October 1942?

 

[marcus]

The director Khrzhanovsky is filming now AT karkov, at the Kapitsa insitute. What Rovelli is saying, I think, is that they flew him to Karkov for consultation, or to be interviewed for possible inclusion in the film. There could also be a film about Matvei Bronstein in the works (closer to the QG theme) same historical period---1930s.

C.R. is an historian/philosopher of science (a second degree) besides theor. phys. He has taught courses in hist/phil. of science and written a book on Anaximander of Miletus. If you read some of the book Quantum Gravity you know it is rich in history and philos. insight.

It would be natural for a documentary filmmaker to consult with C.R. and not out of realm of possibility to invite him to the location where he is shooting the film.

I think the acknowledgments section says very briefly (in a couple of sentences) that he had a good time, and maybe the experience helped motivate him to write this paper. It is a brilliant paper, I think.BTW it was Peter Kapitsa who saved Landau from being purged in 1939 and got Landau out of prison.
He spoke up for Landau during the Stalin Purge time, and saved one of Russia's greatest theoretical physicists. It is natural to film a Landau doc at the Kapitsa institute at Kharkov.