"The Universe from Scratch"

[Martin]

http://www.arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0509010

 

The Universe from Scratch

 

R. Loll, J. Ambjorn, J. Jurkiewicz

30 pages, 5 figures; review paper commissioned by Contemporary Physics and aimed at a wider physics audience

Report-no: SPIN-05/28, ITP-UU-05/34

 

"A fascinating and deep question about nature is what one would see if one could probe space and time at smaller and smaller distances. Already the 19th-century founders of modern geometry contemplated the possibility that a piece of empty space that looks completely smooth and structureless to the naked eye might have an intricate microstructure at a much smaller scale. Our vastly increased understanding of the physical world acquired during the 20th century has made this a certainty. The laws of quantum theory tell us that looking at spacetime at ever smaller scales requires ever larger energies, and, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, this will alter spacetime itself: it will acquire structure in the form of "curvature". What we still lack is a definitive Theory of Quantum Gravity to give us a detailed and quantitative description of the highly curved and quantum-fluctuating geometry of spacetime at this so-called Planck scale. - This article outlines a particular approach to constructing such a theory, that of Causal Dynamical Triangulations, and its achievements so far in deriving from first principles why spacetime is what it is, from the tiniest realms of the quantum to the large-scale structure of the universe."

[GammaMambo]

the hip bone's connected to the...

 

i like to think the "smaller" scale is just discarding the reality we have attatched to what we scrutinize.

 

i think our perception of reality is what keeps us from some of the answers we seek.

[Martin]

the hip bone's connected to the...

 

back bone

 

http://ingeb.org/spiritua/demdrybo.html

[GammaMambo]

too bad I haven't the patience to find a backbone link...an eternal golden braid will just have to do.

[Martin]

too bad I haven't the patience to find a backbone link..

 

the backbone is connected to the shoulder bone

[Locrian]

CDT seems more popular by the day.

[Martin]

CDT seems more popular by the day.

 

the latest was that link to Martin Reuter QEG (quantum Einstein gravity).

 

I think Loll has a lock on the Loops 05 conference

because she and Reuter found the same microscopic structure of 4D spacetime, but came at it from very different directions

 

so its like the thaw in northern countries when the streams start running and the ice on the river begins to break up. the exact moment is hard to pinpoint but let's say it is Wednesday 12 October in the morning at Potsdam and Loll speaks at 9AM and then Reuter at 10AM

 

if you are a science journalist or an historian, that is the time to be in the lecture hall---quantum gravity-wise

 

http://loops05.aei.mpg.de/index_files/Programme.html'>http://loops05.aei.mpg.de/index_files/Programme.html

 

http://loops05.aei.mpg.de/

[GammaMambo]

http://www.thebutterscotchthreshold.com/lego-escher-01.jpg

Map out quantum gravity in lego form...what a big box that would be.