Space-like singularities of general relativity: a phantom menace?

DOI10.1007/S10714-022-02932-5zbMATH Open1500.83034arXiv2205.00298OpenAlexW4281263699MaRDI QIDQ2159304FDOQ2159304

Authors: Abhay Ashtekar, Adrián del Río, Marc Schneider 

Publication date: 29 July 2022

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The big bang and the Schwarzschild singularities are space-like. They are generally regarded as the "final frontiers" at which space-time ends and general relativity breaks down. We review the status of such space-like singularities from three increasingly more general perspectives. They are provided by (i) A reformulation of classical general relativity motivated by the Belinskii, Khalatnikov, Lifshitz conjecture on the behavior of the gravitational field near space-like singularities; (ii) The use of test quantum fields to probe the nature of these singularities; and, (iii) An analysis of the fate of these singularities in loop quantum gravity due to quantum geometry effects. At all three levels singularities turn out to be less menacing than one might a priori expect from classical general relativity. Our goal is to present an overview of the emerging conceptual picture and suggest lines for further work. In line with the emph{Introduction to Current Research} theme, we have made an attempt to make it easily accessible to all researchers in gravitational physics.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.00298

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zbMATH Keywords

general relativityloop quantum gravityquantum field theory in curved spacetimesspace-like singularities

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Space-time singularities, cosmic censorship, etc. (83C75) Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Geometrodynamics and the holographic principle (83E05) History of relativity and gravitational theory (83-03)

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Cited In (8)

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• No more spacetime singularities?
• Topical collection: in memory of Professor T Padmanabhan
• Hamiltonian general relativity and the Belinskii–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz conjecture
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