Berlin 2024 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik
AGPhil 2: Quantum and Classical Gravity 2
AGPhil 2.2: Vortrag
Montag, 18. März 2024, 12:15–12:45, PTB SR AvHB
The quantum theory of gravitation, effective field theories, and strings: yesterday and today. — •Alessio Rocci1 and Thomas Van Riet2 — 1Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Solvay Insitutes, Brussels, Belgium — 2KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
This paper analyzes the effective field theory perspective on modern physics through the lens of the quantum theory of gravitational interaction. The historical part argues that the search for a theory of quantum gravity stimulated the change in outlook that characterizes the modern approach to the Standard Model of particle physics and General Relativity. We present some landmarks covering a long period, i.e., from the beginning of the 1930s until 1994, when, according to Steven Weinberg, the modern bottom-up approach to General Relativity began. Starting from the first attempt to apply the quantum field theory techniques to quantize Einstein's theory perturbatively, we explore its developments and interaction with the top-down approach encoded by String Theory. In the last part of the paper, we focus on this last approach to describe the relationship between our modern understanding of String Theory and Effective Field Theory in today's panorama. To this end, we briefly describe the modern concepts of moduli stabilization and Swampland to understand another change in focus that explains the present framework where some string theorists move.
Keywords: quantum theory of gravity; effective field theory; string theory; swampland; higher derivative theories