Overview
- Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Provides an extensive introduction to the asymptotic safety approach to quantum gravity
- Highlights important fundamental issues and explains key advances with clarity
- Presents a pedagogical guide to correctly constructing asymptotic solutions to fixed-point equations
Part of the book series: Springer Theses (Springer Theses)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
After an extensive introduction to the asymptotic safety approach to quantum gravity, this thesis explains recent key advances reported in four influential papers. Firstly, two exact solutions to the reconstruction problem (how to recover a bare action from the effective average action) are provided. Secondly, the fundamental requirement of background independence in quantum gravity is successfully implemented. Working within the derivative expansion of conformally reduced gravity, the notion of compatibility is developed, uncovering the underlying reasons for background dependence generically forbidding fixed points in such models. Thirdly, in order to understand the true nature of fixed-point solutions, one needs to study their asymptotic behaviour. The author carefully explains how to find the asymptotic form of fixed point solutions within the f(R) approximation. Finally, the key findings are summarised and useful extensions of the work are identified. The thesis finishes by considering the need to incorporate matter into the formalism in a compatible way and touches upon potential opportunities to test asymptotic safety in the future.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Fundamental Aspects of Asymptotic Safety in Quantum Gravity
Authors: Zoë H. Slade
Series Title: Springer Theses
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19507-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-19506-9Published: 17 July 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-19509-0Published: 14 August 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-19507-6Published: 08 July 2019
Series ISSN: 2190-5053
Series E-ISSN: 2190-5061
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 134
Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour
Topics: Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory, Cosmology