Quantum geometry. A framework for quantum general relativity (Q1189491)

Among all the concepts in physics, continuously developed and mathematically modeled along the centuries, there are some, especially those from the foundational level, which certainly possess a ``resonant Yoga-Mantra power''. These very simple two words ``Quantum geometry'', from the title of this monograph, straightly confirm this fact; practically, any person not in the least attracted by the domain of the scientifical knowledge will feel an irresistible power to open this book and to read at least its first chapter and its final chapter. The monograph under review provides a rigorously self-contained introduction to a modern mathematical framework capable of unifying the two fundamental areas of twentieth-century physics, General relativity and Quantum mechanics, based on the thesis that the equivalence principle admits a nontrivial reconciliation in terms of the new type of geometries, suggested by foundational arguments, with the uncertainty principle and thus, it remains true at the quantum level. Amongst the new geometries, the mathematical framework, extensively investigated by the author, is represented by the quantum geometries, which are clearly defined in the Preface: ``\dots the quantum geometries, presented in this monograph, are infinite-dimensional fibre bundles associated with principal bundles, whose structure groups incorporate the Poincaré group -- or its covering group \(ISL(2,\mathbb{C})\). The base manifold of these fibre bundles are Lorentzian manifolds, or their appropriate frame-bundle extensions; whereas, their typical fibres are infinite-dimensional (pseudo-) Hilbert spaces or superspaces.'' Epistemologically, the main feature of this methodology consists in the fact, that it is derived from foundational measurement-theoretical considerations and therefore, from the point of view of the quantum mechanics on the phase space, the present fibre-theoretical framework succeeds in properly adapting the equivalence principle to the quantum regime and brings up to light two new fuitful concepts in the dynamics of the quantum fields, namely those of ``geometro-stochastic propagation'' and ``geometro-stochastic exciton''. The rigorous formulation, in terms of quantum geometries, of the geometro-stochastic propagation straightly leads to the geometro-stochastic excitons, that possess proper state vectors belonging to the fibres of the quantum bundles and are localized in relation to quantum Lorentz frames. Thus, the geometro-stochastic excitons, replacing the conventional quantum point particles, dispel the wave-particle dichotomy and offer, at the micro-level, a unified physical picture of quantum behavior. With concern to the physics of gravity and spacetime, the mathematically sound framework of quantum geometries brings it out in a sharper relief and in a unitary manner the principal areas of application: the quantum field theory in curved spacetime and the quantum gravity. Moreover, the author presents convincing demonstrations of the fact, that the novel features of the quantum geometries not only clarify some long-standing questions of quantum field theory in curved spacetime and of quantum gravity, but also give rise to conventionally unexpected perspectives on the world of elementary particles. As to the organization of the book it contains twelve chapters, a quite impressive bibliography of over 1000 references and a total number of over 400 extensive and carefully documented notes, which are incorporated at the end of the chapters. The principles of quantum geometries together with the classical fibre- bundle technique for General Relativity and the incisive framework of the stochastic quantum mechanics on phase space are presented at length in the first three chapters. The following three chapters (4,5,6) explicitly deal with the formulation of the quantum geometries in the non- relativistic Newton-Cartan case, relativistic Klein-Gordon case and the relativistic Dirac case. The canonical second quantization in curved spacetime, spontaneous Rindler particle creation in Minkowski spacetime, Fock quantum bundles for spin-0 neutral quantum fields and such other topics are analyzed in Chapter 7. The relativistic quantum geometries for spin-1/2 massive fields together with the quantum geometries for electromagnetic fields and more general for Yang-Mills fields are concretely worked out in the chapters 8, 9, 10. Chapter 11 is entirely devoted to the crucial subject of geometro-stochastic quantum gravity and explicitly deals with some fundamental topics such as canonical gravity and initial value problems in classical general relativity, observables and their physical interpretation in quantum general relativity, Lorentz quantum gravitational geometries and internal graviton gauges, quantum gravitational Fadeev-Popov fields and quantum gravitational BRST symmetries and connections. Finally, the historical and epistemological perspectives on the developments in relativity and quantum theory are significantly presented in Chapter 12. This text will be most useful to theoretical and mathematical physicists and also to mathematicians interested in differential geometry, fibre bundles and global analysis. Moreover, because of the inspired explanatory style, this book also represents a genuine guide into the modern philosophical systems based on general relativity and quantum theory, being undoubtedly recommended to philosophers and historians of science. Last, but not least, it should be mentioned, that every effort has been made to produce a text, which is also accessible to graduate students in physics and mathematics.