List of Books on Quantum Gravity and other helpful tips

I’m writting this post to keep track of books on quantum gravity (and closely related/helpful books). I own only the first one, which I recommend if you are interested in the main conceptual problems of quantum gravity. Regarding the others, I am presently considering purchasing Thiemann and Henneaux & Teitelboim’s books.

Rovelli – Quantum Gravity (errata)
Thiemann – Modern Canonical Quantum General Relativity
Kiefer – Quantum Gravity
Amelino-Camelia – Planck Scale Effects in Astrophysics and Cosmology
Gomberoff – Lectures on Quantum Gravity
Ambjørn et al. – Quantum Geometry: A Statistical Field Theory Approach
Carlip – Quantum Gravity in 2+1 Dimensions
Gambini & Pullin – Loops, Knots, Gauge Theories and Quantum Gravity
Henneaux & Teitelboim – Quantization of Gauge Systems
Rickles et al. – The Structural Foundations of Quantum Gravity
Callender – Physics Meets Philosophy at the Planck Scale: Contemporary Theories in Quantum Gravity

There is also Daniele Oriti’s book, which is an edition of several contributions about various approaches to quantum gravity. As it appears, the book has not been released yet. You can learn more about it over at my old blog, Background Independence (scroll down after my two book reviews to find Oriti’s invited post). At that blog you can also find my “Basic Curriculum for Quantum Gravity” (scroll down a little more, after Oriti’s post, or use this direct link to a backup copy of that post, with comments). There, I link to several other helpful books and downloadable tutorials/papers. That list have not been updated. I believe these two papers by Ashtekar are useful recent reviews:

- Loop Quantum Gravity: Four Recent Advances and a Dozen Frequently Asked Questions
- An Introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity Through Cosmology

There is also Smolin’s 2006 Lectures on quantum gravity. See here for more details.

I confess…

When I saw it, I sweared in utter bafflement and astonishment…

MacBook Air

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 11 and 12 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

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The Hand of a Master – Parts 10 and 12 (let’s move on!)

Today is holliday in São José dos Campos, so it’s a rare moment of tranquility for me to study a fraction of a huge pile of books and papers I’ve been collecting along the way.

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 9 and 10 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

The Hand of a Master – Parts 9 and 10

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 7 and 8 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

The Hand of a Master – Parts 7 and 8

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 5 and 6 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

The Hand of a Master – Parts 5 and 6

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 3 and 4 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

The Hand of a Master – Parts 3 and 4

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity Parts 1 and 2 (re-posted)

Attention: This file has been imported from my previous blog, Background Independence. Comments made at the time, if existent, follow the main post. New comments are welcomed. If you don’t know what is all about, see here.

The Hand of a Master – Parts 1 and 2

Smolin’s Introduction to Quantum Gravity – old posts available in sequence

In my previous blog, Background Independence, I posted about Smolin’s lectures on Quantum Gravity, given at the Perimeter Institute in 2006. The lectures were given in 25 parts, and I more or less followed them up to part 12. There were some comments, questions and discussions about these lectures at that time. In order to make them directly available again, I am re-posting them here at Theorema Egregium.

The re-posting involved some importing and editing, and some links may not work properly; I apologize. If you wish to offer comments on those lectures, you are welcomed to do so. Hopefully, some expert will be able to answer questions through those new re-postings.

I am doing this because of the new lectures by Smolin about the problem of time, which may refer to some discussions/comments/questions/ideas that may have taken (or will eventually take) place following the posts entries on his 2006 lectures.

The 2006 posts were part of a series named “The Hand of a Master”. I hope you find them useful.

Edit: Here I have included a list for the individual posts.

Lectures Parts 1 and 2
Lectures Parts 3 and 4
Lectures Parts 5 and 6
Lectures Parts 7 and 8
Lectures Parts 9 and 10
Lectures Parts 11 and 12

For trekkies… (II)

Excerpts from two interesting recent interviews with William Shatner (“Cap. James Kirk”) and Leonard Nimoy (“Mr. Spock”) from the original Star Trek series.

William Shatner: The sci-fi legend on blogging, living out of a car, and seeking enlightenment under a falling horse.

Shatner — (…) I once had a great horse rear up and fall back on me, and in that moment I thought I might gain some clarity about the mystery—you know, the meaning of the universe suddenly illuminated, like in an orgasm—but it never came.

Q — If that horse had killed you, what would you have regretted never achieving?

Shatner — Everything. I’ve done nothing. What have I done? I’ve blundered my way through life. So I have my picture on the wall. The minute I die, that picture will start to yellow and fade and eventually be gone. Blown in the wind and become part of the molecular structure of something else. These things we see as “success,” they’re non-accomplishments.

Leonard Nimoy: partial interview by Peter Hossli.

Q — You write, you photograph, you act. It seem that you’re running away from death.

Nimoy – I think about death. I think about how much time I have left. I put a clock in place that runs backwards. It tells me how much time I have left.

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A new Star Trek film (motion picture number 11) is under production. It will feature the original characters, played by young actors. A difficult task for them…

Smolin on “The Problem of Time”

The first lecture by Lee Smolin on “The Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity and Cosmology” is available from the new PIRSA site.

Edit: Ah, glad to see a mention of Bergson in the scheduled lecture of March 19, “History of the problem of time”. But there is no mention of Saint Augustine.

Update – Here are the presently available presentation files:

Lecture 1.
Lecture 2A.
Lecture 2B.

Update Jan 25 2008:

Lecture 3.
Lecture 3B.

Update Jan 31 2008:

Lecture 4.
Lecture 4B. (appears to have been removed).

Update Feb 9 2008:

Lecture 5.
Lecture 5B.

Update Feb 14 2008:

Lecture 6.
Lecture 6B.

Update Feb 20 2008:

Lecture 6C.
Lecture 6D.

Update Mar 06 2008:

Lecture 7.
Lecture 7B.

Update Mar 20 2008:

Lecture 8.
Lecture 8B.
Lecture 9.
Lecture 9B.

Update Mar 31 2008:

Lecture 10.
Lecture 11.
Lecture 11B.

What I have been doing…

Yesterday, I visited Lazaro’s Beach (near Ubatuba, in São Paulo State, Brazil, about 2h by car from where I live). This is a picture I took (click to enlarge):

There are several beautiful beaches in the “litoral paulista”, here are some professional pictures:

Paradise will continue until next Jan 16, when my vacation is over.

Meet Rio de Janeiro… in the 30′s