Quantum gravity in timeless configuration space

DOI10.1088/1361-6382/AA8CF9zbMATH Open1381.83141arXiv1706.08875OpenAlexW3098620125MaRDI QIDQ4601013FDOQ4601013

Authors: Henrique Gomes 

Publication date: 18 January 2018

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: On the path towards quantum gravity, we find friction between temporal relations in quantum mechanics (QM) (where they are fixed and field-independent), and in general relativity (where they are field-dependent and dynamic). This paper aims to attenuate that friction, by encoding gravity in the timeless configuration space of spatial fields with dynamics given by a path integral. The framework demands that boundary conditions for this path integral be uniquely given, but unlike other approaches where they are prescribed --- such as the no-boundary and the tunneling proposals --- here I postulate basic principles to identify boundary conditions in a large class of theories. Uniqueness arises only if a reduced configuration space can be defined and if it has a profoundly asymmetric fundamental structure. These requirements place strong restrictions on the field and symmetry content of theories encompassed here; shape dynamics is one such theory. Also as in other boundary proposals, Time, including space-time, emerges as an effective concept; valid for certain curves in configuration space but not assumed from the start. When some such notion of time becomes available, conservation of (positive) probability currents ensues. I show that, in the appropriate limits, a Schroedinger equation dictates the evolution of weakly coupled source fields on a classical gravitational background. Due to the asymmetry of reduced configuration space, these probabilities and currents avoid a known difficulty of standard WKB approximations for Wheeler DeWitt in minisuperspace: the selection of a unique Hamilton-Jacobi solution to serve as background. I illustrate these constructions with a simple example of a full quantum gravitational theory (i.e. not in minisuperspace) for which the formalism is applicable, and give a formula for calculating gravitational semi-classical relative probabilities in it.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.08875

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zbMATH Keywords

quantum cosmologyshape dynamicsconditional probabilities in quantum mechanicsHamiltonian GRno boundary proposalpath integrals in field theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of statistics to physics (62P35) Geometry and quantization, symplectic methods (81S10) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40)

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