Black Holes and Quantum Gravity

理论引力物理学的研究将包括： 短距离物理学在通过霍金过程的黑洞辐射和膨胀宇宙中粒子产生中的作用 引力场的高阶导数有效作用量的观测极限和理论特性 这种有效作用的黑洞热力学 确定黑洞熵的统计起源的努力 通过量子场算符代数和因果网络的时空结构截止模型 这项研究的结果将导致更好地了解粒子生产在引力场的敏感性未知的短距离物理，可能的修正爱因斯坦方程，和性质和范围的有效性的法律黑洞热力学。 这项研究也可能导致预测以下的存在一个基本的短距离截止的物理自由度，和/或产生有价值的见解，试图取代连续时空模型的有限性。

The research in theoretical gravitational physics will include: The role of short distance physics in black hole radiation via the Hawking process and in particle production in an expanding universe; Observational limits on, and theoretical properties of, higher derivative effective actions for the gravitational field; Black hole thermodynamics for such effective actions; The effort to identify a statistical origin for black hole entropy; Cutoff models for spacetime structure via the algebra of quantum field operators and causal networks; Results of this research should lead to a better understanding of the sensitivity of particle production in gravitational fields to unknown short distance physics, possible corrections to the Einstein equations, and of the nature and range of validity of the laws of black hole thermodynamics. The research may also lead to predictions following from the existence of a fundamental short-distance cutoff on physical degrees of freedom, and/or yield insights valuable in attempts to supplant the continuum model of spacetime by a finitistic one.