Symmetry/Asymmetry in Quantum Theory of Gravity

Dear Colleagues,

Symmetries are at the origin of the modern comprehension of fundamental interactions in physics. Internal symmetries both dictate the dynamics of the degrees of freedom of quantum systems and specify how such systems interact. External symmetries—more precisely, diffeomorphism symmetries—provide strong constraints on physical observables, as accurately confirmed by a plethora of high-precision experiments. Our comprehension of quantum gravity models is thus intertwined with the fate of symmetries at high-energy (Planckian) scales. At the same time, the breakdown of global symmetries in quantum gravity might also lead to stringent phenomenological predictions that have observable implications on the mass spectroscopy of dark matter candidates. The reconceptualization of quantum theory in informational terms suggests, on the other hand, that all classical information, including the local values of spacetime curvature, results from breaking a symmetry. This offers an appealing scenario in which the structure of spacetime itself could be emergent via a decoherence process or quantum field condensation. 

This Special Issue of Symmetry solicits papers from all relevant theoretical perspectives, including novel approaches to information topology and/or geometry. Topics of interest include but are not limited to discrete symmetries in quantum gravity; the breakdown of global symmetries in quantum gravity; hypersurface constraint algebra and the canonical quantization of gravity; decoherence mechanisms that record curvature information locally in spacetime; the “erasure” of curvature through recoherence; the generation of gravitational waves; the renormalization group flow; the encoding of curvature information in dark energy, dark matter, or supertranslation or other “soft mode” symmetries; spontaneous symmetry breaking and radiative corrections; and the description of scattering or other processes within spacetime from a quantum computational perspective.

Dr. Chris Fields
Guest Editor

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