Addressing challenges of quantum gravity through quantum geometry: black holes and big-bang (Q1428779)

This work contains a brief review of advances in loop quantum gravity with emphasis on structural, conceptual and physical issues. The author focuses his attention only on two main topics: cosmological singularities and black hole entropy. Firstly he introduces the reader to the quantum geometric approach, summarizing the salient features and current status. In the next two sections he presents applications of the quantum geometry to: Big-bang singularity and black-hole entropy. In the Conclusions the author enumerates the unforeseen simplifications in the quantum gravity problems which have arisen thanks to the loop quantum gravity approach.