Universität Wien
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260026 VU Quantum gravity (2023S)

5.00 ECTS (3.00 SWS), SPL 26 - Physik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 15 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Attendance in the first class is mandatory. Please come to the first class, even if you are on the waiting list. I expect to manually enroll additional students to reach a maximum of about 30. If you are in the course and can not come to the first class (but do plan to attend afterwards) please reach out to me via email, to reserve your place.

  • Friday 10.03. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 17.03. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 24.03. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 31.03. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 21.04. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 28.04. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 05.05. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 12.05. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 19.05. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 26.05. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 02.06. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 09.06. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 16.06. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien
  • Friday 23.06. 10:45 - 13:15 Erwin-Schrödinger-Hörsaal, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5. Stk., 1090 Wien

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Quantum Gravity is one of the big open questions in physics.We understand Quantum Field theory, and General Relativity very well, if we look at each in their own domain. However once we reach scales of energy where these theories ought to both apply we are at a loss.

Trying to answer this question has lead to many different proposed solutions, and the field of Quantum Gravity currently consists of an entire zoo of different approaches. This lecture will try to introduce this varied field.

This is a survey course, which presents different approaches to Quantum Gravity in one or two lectures each and the material will be reinforced through exercise classes.
The lecture is planned to introduce the naive approach to quantizing general relativity, Regge calculus, loop quantum gravity, spinfoam models, dynamical triangulations, Matrix models, asymptotic safety, and causal set theory.

Since the subjects covered are currently active areas of research the content of the lectures should be understood as the best current understanding and not as a definite opinion on the subjects covered.

The course aims to provide students with an overview over different approaches to Quantum Gravity. After the course the students should be able to:
• Understand why quantizing gravity is a difficult problem
• Apply the mathematical tools of a variety of approaches to simple cases
• Compare the different approaches and formulate a well argued position about which approaches they consider promising.

The lectures will be accompanied by exercise sheets for the students .
Instruction will be held in English.

Students are expected to have some knowledge of general relativity and quantum field theory. There will be a status quiz to understand their backgrounds, and these topics will be covered as a quick review at the beginning of the lectures, however students without prior exposure can expect to need to spend some extra time on familiarizing themselves with these theories.

Assessment and permitted materials

Peer discussed problem sets (10-12 problem sets in total)

The lectures will be accompanied by problem sets to apply the knowledge.
The solutions to these problem sets will have to be uploaded before the lecture the following week.

They will then be discussed in small peer groups (example solutions will be made available for this, and I will be available for questions and discussions). After these discussions the students have two weeks to hand in their annotated problems to me, which I will grade. A perfect grade is then either a perfectly solved problem, or a problem with mistakes in the solution, which were understood and annotated well.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Grading of each problem set will happen according to a 100% scale, with 50% required to pass, 62,5% for a 3, 75% for a 2 and 87.5% for a 1.

For students that participate in the pre-term multiple choice evaluation to assess prior knowledge the worst individual grade from the problem sets will be dropped.

Examination topics

This course will not have a final exam. The students will instead be evaluated on the exercises.

Reading list

A full literature list will be available on the course Moodle page.

Association in the course directory

M-VAF A 2, M-VAF B

Last modified: Tu 31.01.2023 12:49