Wednesday October 7th 2015 at Geneva – Vincent Lam (Lausanne) (and Christian Wüthrich, Geneva): Functional emergence of spacetime in quantum gravity

Abstract: “Relativistic spacetime, according to many quantum theories of gravity, does not exist, fundamentally. This threatens the very possibility of the empirical confirmation of these theories. Their empirical coherence can be restored by securing the emergence of spacetime from the fundamental non-spatio- temporal structures. Establishing this emergence requires not just mathematical limits and approximations, but also a successful argument that these technical procedures result in appropriately local `beables’. We show in the context of two programs in quantum gravity—loop quantum gravity and causal set theory—that a recovery of the merely functionally relevant features of spacetime suffices to this end.”

Note that Dave Baker (Michigan) will be speaking at UIC the next day. Details follow.