Programme

Speaker: Carlo Rovelli
Title: GENERAL RELATIVISTIC QUANTUM PHYSICS: Background independent scattering amplitudes, boundary formalism, local particles and partial observables
Abstract: (i) I present some preliminary results on background independent calculations of particle scattering amplitudes. In particular, I discuss the derivation of the graviton propagator, from loop quantum gravity and the spinfoam formalism. (ii) I illustrate the boundary formulation of quantum field theory, its role in a background independent context, and how "particles" emerge in this language. (iii) More in general, I discuss how systematic physical predictions can be extracted from a general relativistic quantum field theory: I illustrate the notion of "partial observable", and discuss the issue of the physical significance of the spectrum of these observables, which controls the interpretation of the area and volume discreteness.
Talk: Transparencies, Recorded Talk