Mathematical Physics Seminar

    Monday 10.V.2010

    Time: 16:00-17:00

    Room: 0089
    Instytut Matematyki, ul. Łojasiewicza 6, 30-348 Kraków

    Bernd Schroers (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK)

    Galilean quantum gravity in 2+1 dimensions

    Abstract:
    In 2+1 dimensions, the idea that quantum gravity is related to deformations of Poincaré
    symmetry and to noncommutative spacetime geometry can be made precise in the
    framework of a direct, Hamiltonian quantisation of the Chern-Simons formulation of
    (2+1)-dimensional gravity. I will review this framework and the basic mathematical
    notions underlying it, and then apply it to a little-studied regime of quantum gravity:
    the limit where the speed of light is infinite, but Planck's constant and Newton's
    constant take finite values. Somewhat surprisingly, the noncommutative geometry of
    space-time in this limit is related to the harmonic oscillator algebra or, equivalently,
    the Nappi-Witten Lie algebra.

    Reference:
    G. Papageorgiou, B.J. Schroers: "A Chern-Simons approach to Galilean quantum
    gravity in 2+1 dimensions", arXiv:0907.2880v2


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