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A First Course in Loop Quantum Gravity
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In our current understanding, there exist four fundamental interactions in nature: electromagnetism, weak interactions, strong interactions, and gravity. Everyone is familiar with electromagnetism. Weak interactions are involved in the decay of nuclei. Strong interactions keep nuclei together. The rules of quantum mechanics have been applied to elec- tromagnetism, the weak and strong interactions. It is sort of natural to apply the rules of quantum mechanics to such interactions since they play key roles in the dynamics of atoms and nuclei and one knows that at such scales classical mechanics does not give correct predictions. The rules of quantum mechanics have not been applied to gravity in a satisfactory manner up to now. Loop quantum gravity is an attempt to do so, but it is an incomplete theory.
Before continuing we should clarify that from now on “gravity” is meant to be described not by the theory of Newton that one learns in elementary physics courses, but by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Numerous experimental tests of high accuracy agree with the predictions of general relativity (Will 2005). In such description, gravity is not really an “interaction” but rather a deformation of space-time. The latter is not flat and therefore objects do not follow naturally straight trajecto- ries in space-time. This accounts for what one normally perceives as a gravitational “force,” which in reality does not exist as such. In everyday parlance, we reinterpret the curved space-time around us as generating a gravitational force
Rodolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin - Personal Name
1st Edtion
978–0–19–959075–9
NONE
A First Course in Loop Quantum Gravity
Management
English
Oxford University Press Inc.
2011
USA
1-192
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