Quantum Gravity and the Functional Renormalization Group - The Road Towards Asymptotic Safety

A self-contained pedagogical introduction to asymptotic safety and the functional renormalization group in quantum gravity, for graduate students and researchers.

List of contents

1. A quantum field theory of gravity; 2. The functional renormalization group; 3. The asymptotic safety mechanism; 4. A functional renormalization group for gravity; 5. Truncations of single-metric type; 6. Bi-metric truncations; 7. Conformally reduced gravity; 8. The reconstruction problem; 9. Alternative field variables; 10. Matter coupled to quantum gravity; 11. Towards phenomenology; 12. Miscellanea; Appendix A. Notation and conventions; Appendix B. Organizing the derivative expansion; Appendix C. Metric variations; Appendix D. Heat Kernel techniques; Appendix E. Cutoff- and threshold functions; Appendix F. Field decompositions; References; Index.

About the author

Martin Reuter is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany. He previously worked at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, in Geneva, the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, and the Leibniz Universität Hannover. In the 1990s, he initiated the exploration of quantum gravity and the Asymptotic Safety scenario by means of the functional renormalization group and subsequently played a key role in developing the program into its present form.Frank Saueressig is Associate Professor at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Before his appointment, he held research positions at Utrecht University, the Institut de Physique Théorique at CEA/Saclay, and an Emmy Noether fellowship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. With more than seventy scientific publications in the field of quantum gravity he is among the leading young talents in the field.

Summary

This volume provides a unique introduction to the gravitational asymptotic safety scenario within quantum gravity research. Aimed at graduate students and experienced researchers alike, it guides readers from the foundations to the state-of-the-art in the field, including applications to black holes and the cosmology near the Big Bang.

Product details

• Authors: Martin Reuter, Martin (Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mai Reuter, Martin (Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz Reuter, Reuter Martin, Frank Saueressig, Frank (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen) Saueressig
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2018
• EAN: 9781107107328
• ISBN: 978-1-107-10732-8
• No. of pages: 354
• Series: Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics; Cambridge Monographs on Mathem; Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics; Cambridge Monographs on Mathem
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Physics, astronomy > Miscellaneous; SCIENCE / Physics / Mathematical & Computational, Quantum physics (quantum mechanics & quantum field theory), Quantum physics (quantum mechanics and quantum field theory), Relativity physics, Mathematical physics