Talks, Seminars, and Colloquia

Abstract:

For over 70 years, the search for a viable theory of quantum gravity has taken on many creative approaches to date.  Beyond the lack of any physical data to justify the approaches taken thus far, these respective theories also fundamentally disagree with each other in terms of the set of conceptual, mathematical, and philosophical assumptions that define them.  This underlying issue becomes most evident when assessing the relative merits of the two leading contenders for quantum gravity, namely string theory (ST) and loop quantum gravity (LQG).  Furthermore, the mathematical complexities of present and future quantum gravity theories render it very difficult to properly gauge the level of progress gained beyond purely theoretical considerations, especially in the hope of generating signatures that can be unambiguously assessed within an experimental setting.

The overall purpose of this presentation is to identify and offer a critical assessment of the conceptual challenges that come from studying the overlap region between gravitational and quantum mechanical phenomena in the ongoing search for quantum gravity.  In particular, a set of well-defined research findings are presented to illustrate the appearance of non-trivial physical predictions several orders of magnitude larger than any effects predicted by ST, LQG, and other approaches to quantum gravity.  If one or more of these predictions are subsequently confirmed by observations, they have the potential to rule out any number of existing quantum gravity theories in existence, with important implications for future research endeavours.