Finite quantum gravity, conformal Invariance, and spacetime singularities

by Dr Leonardo Modesto (Fudan University - People's Republic of China)

Thursday 11 Feb 2016, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Teorici (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia)

We explicitly prove that a class of finite quantum gravitational theories (in odd as well as in even dimension) is actually a range of anomaly-free conformal invariant theories in the spontaneously broken phase of the conformal Weyl symmetry. At classical level we show how the Weyl conformal invariance is likely able to tame the spacetime singularities that plague not only Einstein gravity, but also local and weakly non-local higher derivative theories. Following the seminal paper by Narlikar and Kembhavi, we provide an explicit construction of singularity-free black hole exact solutions conformally equivalent to the Schwarzschild metric. We also show that the FRW cosmological solutions, the Belinski, Khalatnikov, Lifshitz (BKL) spacetimes, and the gravitational Oppenheimer-Volkov collapse are exact solutions of the weakly nonlocal conformal invariant theory and are all singularity free.