Conceptual problems of quantum gravity. Based on the proceedings of the 1988 Osgood Hill Conference held in North Andover, MA, USA, May 15-19, 1988 (Q1900768)

These proceedings give a vivid account of the 1988 Osgood Hill Conference on quantum gravity, and reflect the hopes and difficulties of the moment. Attempts at reconciling general relativity and quantum field theory followed either one of the standard procedures: Lorentz covariant quantizations and Hamiltonian ones. Early 4-dimensional `covariant' approaches adopt a background Minkowskian spacetime and quantize the departure of the Lorentzian metric from the Minkowskian one; their diffeomorphism invariance renders them perturbatively non-renormalizable. The cancellation of bosonic divergences through the introduction of fermions is contemplated in supersymmetric theories. Hence the development of supergravity, which is expected to appear as a low-energy limit of superstrings which should unify the fundamental forces without spacetime playing a significant role. However, perturbation series are again highly divergent, although individual perturbative terms are finite; hence the need for a non- perturbative approach. In this perspective, bosonic strings are discussed here, as possible realistic models of superstrings (Horowitz, Kuchar and Torre). The canonical approach begins with the ADM formulation of general relativity, but standard quantization programs meet with failure, leaving the Wheeler-DeWitt equation as a remnant of geometrodynamics; its derivations is considered here in order to look into the relationship between the Dirac and path-integral quantizations (Halliwell). A major part of these Proceedings concerns the introduction of Ashtekar's new variables: a triad and a self-dual connection in a 3-space, which, reducing the constraints to polynomial form, raised the hope of developing a non-perturbative quantum gravity based on Dirac's approach (Ashtekar). ``Quantum covariant'' attempts with loop variables (Rovelli, Smolin), along with their major difficulties (choice of time and the related notion of inner product, diffeomorphism invariance), are discussed in a general framework (Rovelli, Halliwell) and in quantum cosmology (Wald, Smolin). One also finds an analysis of topological quantization (Isham, Friedman) and comments regarding black hole statistical thermodynamics (York, Kuchar). On the other hand, Stachel uses Einstein's correspondence to argue that the latter's reluctance to adhere to quantum theory proceeded less from its probabilistic interpretation than from its use of continuum mathematics and its non- admission of a reality independent of the observer. One may also note that the criticism he rightly addresses to some relativists about the appraisal of the manifold concept could be applied to the later Einstein as well, although he undoubtedly contributed to the development of this concept. Contents: Abhay Ashtekar, Introduction: the winding road to quantum gravity (1--9); John Stachel, Einstein and quantum mechanics (13--42); Wojciech H. Zurek, Quantum measurements and the environment-induced transition from quantum to classical (pp. 43--66); W. G. Unruh, Loss of quantum coherence for a damped oscillator (67--74); Jonathan J. Halliwell, The Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the path integral in minisuperspace quantum cosmology (5--115); Don N. Page, Interpreting the density matrix of the universe (116--121); Abner Shimony, Meditation on time (125); Carlo Rovelli, Is there incompatibility between the ways time is treated in general relativity and in standard quantum mechanics? (126--140); Karel V. Kuchař, The problem of time in canonical quantization of relativistic systems (pp. 141--171); James B. Hartle, Time and prediction in quantum cosmology (172--203); Jonathan J. Halliwell, Time in quantum cosmology (204--210); Robert M. Wald, The role of time in the interpretation of the wave function of the universe (211); Ted Jacobson, Unitarity, causality and quantum gravity (212--216); Rafael D. Sorkin, Problems with causality in the sum-over-histories framework for quantum mechanics (pp. 217--227); Lee Smolin, Space and time in the quantum universe (228--291); Carlo Rovelli, Group quantization of the Barbour-Bertotti model (292--296); Gary T. Horowitz, String theory without space-time (299--325); K. V. Kuchař and C. G. Torre, Strings as poor relatives of general relativity (326--348); C. J. Isham, Canonical groups and the quantization of geometry and topology (pp. 351--400); Abhay Ashtekar, Old problems in the light of new variables (401--426); Carlo Rovelli, Loop representation in quantum gravity: the transform approach (427--439); Lee Smolin, Nonperturbative quantum gravity via the loop representation (440--489); J. L. Friedman and Ian Jack, Formal commutators of the gravitational constraints are not well defined (490--498); L. J. Mason, Insights from twistor theory (499--511); Bryce DeWitt, Nonlinear sigma models in \(4\) dimensions as toy models for quantum gravity (512--535); John L. Friedman, Space-time topology and quantum gravity (539--572); James W. York, Jr., Black holes and partition functions (573--596); Ted Jacobson, Black hole thermodynamics and the space-time discontinuum (597--599).