Departamento de Gravitación y Teoría de Campos

                          Seminarios 2014

 

                          Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, UNAM


[ ICN-UNAM]


Jueves 6 de octubre, a las 17:00 hrs en la Sala de Seminarios A2.25, 2. piso del ICN

Tim Koslowski (University of New Brunskick, Canada)

Spacetime as an illusion

Classical gravity can be described as the evolution of spatial conformal geometry. The predictions of this "shape dynamics" description of gravity coincide (except for subtle differences in special circumstances) with the predictions of the familiar description of gravity in terms of spacetime geometry that solves Einstein's equations; although without ever appealing to spacetime. I will start the talk with a brief outline of the shape dynamics description of gravity. Subsequently, I will focus on the question how the evolution of material objects with gravity leads to the "physical experience" of a spacetime that solves Einstein's equations. This classical model already exhibits limits to the domain of applicability of the abstracted spacetime. The third point of my talk is the introduction of quantum particles, i.e. irreducible excitations of free quantum fields. I discuss how these could be used to explore how the experienced spacetime of the shape dynamics description deviates from the abstract spacetime behind the QFT in curved spacetime of the problem.