• Wednesday April 27th 2016 at UIC – Karen Crowther: The Correspondence Principle in Quantum Gravity

Abstract: “The difficulties in discovering a theory of quantum gravity are due not only to its apparently extreme experimental inaccessibility, but the fact that there are no commonly accepted, formally established constraints that define its basic structure and objectives. I critically examine the role of the correspondence principle in quantum gravity, to evaluate its prospects as such a constraint. I find that there is a form of correspondence that serves as an essential heuristic guide in developing the theory, but that another form of correspondence has acquired a status of undue weight. It seems that the stress on deriving general relativity in the low-energy regime is unwise at this stage of theory-development, and possibly altogether.”  In terms of technical difficulty, this talk rates 3/5