U.S.-Mexico Collaborative Research in Quantum Gravity

该奖项将支持犹他大学的Karel Kuchar教授与墨西哥国立自治大学的Michael P. Ryan教授和Marcos Rosenbaum教授的一项研究合作。研究人员计划研究引力场量子化的一般问题，这是20世纪物理学中未解决的突出问题之一。更具体地说，他们将研究引力场“迷你超空间”量子化的物理意义。这样的量子化，虽然在许多方面不是物理的，但总是导致一些结果，表明它是真正的物理解的近似。研究人员打算确定这些解确实近似于量子引力的方式。美国PI在重力规范量子化研究方面是公认的领导者，在墨西哥方面，Ryan教授一直参与超空间量子化研究，Rosenbaum教授是经典场论方面的专家。这种经验丰富的合作者的结合很可能在物理学的一个重要领域产生实质性的结果。

This award will support Professor Karel Kuchar of the University of Utah in a research collaboration with Professors Michael P. Ryan and Professor Marcos Rosenbaum of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. The researchers plan to study the general problem of quantization of the gravitational field, one of the outstanding unsolved problems of twentieth century physics. More specifically, they will examine the physical meaning of "minisuperspace" quantization of the gravitational field. Such quantization, while not physical in many respects, has always led to results that suggest it is an approximation to true physical solutions. The investigators intend to define the ways in which these solutions are indeed approximations to quantum gravity. The U.S. PI is an acknowledged leader in the study of the canonical quantization of gravity and, on the Mexican side, Professor Ryan has been involved with minisuperspace quantization and Professor Rosenbaum is an expert in classical field theory. This combination of experienced collaborators is likely to lead to substantive results in an important area of physics.