A New Paradigm for the Dynamics of Classical and Quantum Gravity

该奖项支持为完全受约束的理论开发新范式的研究，如爱因斯坦在经典和量子水平上的广义相对论。新的方法在于构建离散理论，使得连续统理论作为明确定义的连续统极限出现。构造离散理论的具体建议，称为“一致离散化”，有几个吸引人的特点。特别是，离散理论避免了许多困难的概念问题，这些问题使传统的量子广义相对论方法变得复杂。发展一个完整的理论来协调广义相对论作为经典引力理论和量子力学原理仍然是理论物理的主要开放问题之一。该奖项支持的研究项目代表了解决这一问题的一种方法。该项目的更广泛影响是通过培训路易斯安那州立大学相对论小组的学生和博士后研究人员，以及这里介绍的技术可能也适用于其他科学领域，帮助创造科学人力资源。

This award supports research to develop a new paradigm for totally constrained theories like Einstein's theory of general relativity at a classical and quantum level. The new approach consists in constructing discrete theories such that the continuum theory arises as a well defined continuum limit. The specific proposal for constructing the discrete theories, called "uniform discretizations" has several attractive features. In particular the discrete theories avoid many of the hard conceptual problems that complicate traditional approaches to quantum general relativity.Development a complete theory to reconcile general relativity as a classical theory of gravitation with the principles of quantum mechanics remains one of the major open questions of theoretical physics. The research program supported by this award represents one approach to this problem. The broader impacts of this project are aiding in the creation of scientific human resources through the training of students and postdoctoral researchers in the relativity group at Louisiana State University and the possibility that the techniques introduced here may have applicability in other areas of science as well.