Speaker
Description
I will emphasise what I consider as the checkpoints on the road to quantum gravity as a part of my research program and ideology, the four points, viz., the prescription of gravity-matter interaction, observer dependence, resolution of issues and paradoxes in quantum fields in curved spacetimes (QFT in CST), and probes of quantum effects in gravity. QFT in CST has been very successful in unveiling a whole new class of physical effects from those in non-inertial frames to black holes, and in cosmology. The talk will seek to look into some of these so as to provide guide posts that any theory of quantum gravity should incorporate. I will discuss how the need to "prescribe" a back reaction inclusive gravity-matter interaction arises beyond QFT on fixed backgrounds. I will discuss the role of entanglement in contrasting a fully quantum dynamics with a certain back reaction inclusive dynamics and dynamics on a fixed background in a simple example where all three aspects are tractable. I will describe the dynamics of entanglement between a bipartite gravity-matter system within cosmology. The talk will conclude with a direction to probing quantum effects in gravity.
