Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe

gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with

environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored,[1]
such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects,
such as neutron stars.[2][3]

Three of the four fundamental forces of physics are described within the framework
of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. The current understanding of the
fourth force, gravity, is based on Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity,
which is formulated within the entirely different framework of classical physics.
However, that description is incomplete: describing the gravitational field of a
black hole in the general theory of relativity leads physical quantities, such as
the spacetime curvature, to diverge at the center of the black hole.

This signals the breakdown of the general theory of relativity and the need for a
theory that goes beyond general relativity into the quantum realm. At distances
very close to the center of the black hole (closer to the Planck length), quantum
fluctuations of spacetime are expected to play an important role.[4] To describe
these quantum effects a theory of quantum gravity is needed. Such a theory should
allow the description to be extended closer to the center and might even allow an
understanding of physics at the center of a black hole. On more formal grounds, one
can argue that a classical system cannot consistently be coupled to a quantum one.
[5][6]: 
11–12 

The field of quantum gravity is actively developing, and theorists are exploring a
variety of approaches to the problem of quantum gravity, the most popular being M-
theory and loop quantum gravity.[7] All of these approaches aim to describe the
quantum behavior of the gravitational field. This does not necessarily include
unifying all fundamental interactions into a single mathematical framework.
However, many approaches to quantum gravity, such as string theory, try to develop
a framework that describes all fundamental forces. Such a theory is often referred
to as a theory of everything. Others, such as loop quantum gravity, make no such
attempt; instead, they make an effort to quantize the gravitational field while it
is kept separate from the other forces.

One of the difficulties of formulating a quantum gravity theory is that direct

observation of quantum gravitational effects is thought to only appear at length
scales near the Planck scale, around 10−35 meters, a scale far smaller, and hence
only accessible with far higher energies, than those currently available in high
energy particle accelerators. Therefore, physicists lack experimental data which
could distinguish between the competing theories which have been proposed.[n.b. 1]
[n.b. 2]

Thought experiment approaches have been suggested as a testing tool for quantum
gravity theories.[8][9] In the field of quantum gravity there are several open
questions - e.g., it is not known how spin of elementary particles sources gravity,
and thought experiments could provide a pathway to explore possible resolutions to
these questions,[10] even in the absence of lab experiments or physical
observations.

In the early 21st century, new experiment designs and technologies have arisen
which suggest that indirect approaches to testing quantum gravity may be feasible
over the next few decades.[11][12][13][14] This field of study is called
phenomenological quantum gravity.

Overview
Unsolved problem in physics:
How can the theory of quantum mechanics be merged with the theory of general
relativity / gravitational force and remain correct at microscopic length scales?
What verifiable predictions does any theory of quantum gravity make?

(more unsolved problems in physics)

Diagram showing the place of quantum gravity in the hierarchy of physics theories
Much of the difficulty in meshing these theories at all energy scales comes from
the different assumptions that these theories make on how the universe works.
General relativity models gravity as curvature of spacetime: in the slogan of John
Archibald Wheeler, "Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how
to curve."[15] On the other hand, quantum field theory is typically formulated in
the flat spacetime used in special relativity. No theory has yet proven successful
in describing the general situation where the dynamics of matter, modeled with
quantum mechanics, affect the curvature of spacetime. If one attempts to treat
gravity as simply another quantum field, the resulting theory is not
renormalizable.[16] Even in the simpler case where the curvature of spacetime is
fixed a priori, developing quantum field theory becomes more mathematically
challenging, and many ideas physicists use in quantum field theory on flat
spacetime are no longer applicable.[17]

It is widely hoped that a theory of quantum gravity would allow us to understand

problems of very high energy and very small dimensions of space, such as the
behavior of black holes, and the origin of the universe.[1]

Quantum mechanics and general relativity

Graviton
Main article: Graviton
The observation that all fundamental forces except gravity have one or more known
messenger particles leads researchers to believe that at least one must exist for
gravity. This hypothetical particle is known as the graviton. These particles act
as a force particle similar to the photon of the electromagnetic interaction. Under
mild assumptions, the structure of general relativity requires them to follow the
quantum mechanical description of interacting theoretical spin-2 massless
particles.[18][19][20][21][22] Many of the accepted notions of a unified theory of
physics since the 1970s assume, and to some degree depend upon, the existence of
the graviton. The Weinberg–Witten theorem places some constraints on theories in
which the graviton is a composite particle.[23][24] While gravitons are an
important theoretical step in a quantum mechanical description of gravity, they are
generally believed to be undetectable because they interact too weakly.[25]

Nonrenormalizability of gravity
Further information: Renormalization and Asymptotic safety in quantum gravity
General relativity, like electromagnetism, is a classical field theory. One might
expect that, as with electromagnetism, the gravitational force should also have a
corresponding quantum field theory.

However, gravity is perturbatively nonrenormalizable.[26][27] For a quantum field

theory to be well defined according to this understanding of the subject, it must
be asymptotically free or asymptotically safe. The theory must be characterized by
a choice of finitely many parameters, which could, in principle, be set by
experiment. For example, in quantum electrodynamics these parameters are the charge
and mass of the electron, as measured at a particular energy scale.

On the other hand, in quantizing gravity there are, in perturbation theory,

infinitely many independent parameters (counterterm coefficients) needed to define
the theory. For a given choice of those parameters, one could make sense of the
theory, but since it is impossible to conduct infinite experiments to fix the
values of every parameter, it has been argued that one does not, in perturbation
theory, have a meaningful physical theory. At low energies, the logic of the
renormalization group tells us that, despite the unknown choices of these
infinitely many parameters, quantum gravity will reduce to the usual Einstein
theory of general relativity. On the other hand, if we could probe very high
energies where quantum effects take over, then every one of the infinitely many
unknown parameters would begin to matter, and we could make no predictions at all.
[28]

It is conceivable that, in the correct theory of quantum gravity, the infinitely

many unknown parameters will reduce to a finite number that can then be measured.
One possibility is that normal perturbation theory is not a reliable guide to the
renormalizability of the theory, and that there really is a UV fixed point for
gravity. Since this is a question of non-perturbative quantum field theory, finding
a reliable answer is difficult, pursued in the asymptotic safety program. Another
possibility is that there are new, undiscovered symmetry principles that constrain
the parameters and reduce them to a finite set. This is the route taken by string
theory, where all of the excitations of the string essentially manifest themselves
as new symmetries.[29][better source needed]

Quantum gravity as an effective field theory

Main article: Effective field theory
In an effective field theory, all but the first few of the infinite set of
parameters in a nonrenormalizable theory are suppressed by huge energy scales and
hence can be neglected when computing low-energy effects. Thus, at least in the
low-energy regime, the model is a predictive quantum field theory.[30] Furthermore,
many theorists argue that the Standard Model should be regarded as an effective
field theory itself, with "nonrenormalizable" interactions suppressed by large
energy scales and whose effects have consequently not been observed experimentally.
[31] Works pioneered by Barvinsky and Vilkovisky [32][33][34][35] suggest as a
starting point up to second order in curvature the following action, consisting of
local and non-local terms:

Γ
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{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\Gamma &=\int d^{4}x\,{\sqrt {-g}}\,{\bigg (}{\frac
{R}{16\pi G}}+c_{1}(\mu )R^{2}+c_{2}(\mu )R_{\mu \nu }R^{\mu \nu }+c_{3}(\mu )R_{\
mu \nu \rho \sigma }R^{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\bigg )}\\&-\int d^{4}x{\sqrt {-g}}{\
bigg [}\alpha R\ln \left({\frac {\Box }{\mu ^{2}}}\right)R+\beta R_{\mu \nu }\ln \
left({\frac {\Box }{\mu ^{2}}}\right)R^{\mu \nu }+\gamma R_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }\
ln \left({\frac {\Box }{\mu ^{2}}}\right)R^{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\bigg ]},\
end{aligned}}}
where
�\mu is an energy scale. The exact values of the coefficients
�
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{\displaystyle c_{1},c_{2},c_{3}} are unknown, as they depend on the nature of the
ultra-violet theory of quantum gravity.
ln
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{\displaystyle \ln \left(\Box /\mu ^{2}\right)} is an operator with the integral
representation

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{\displaystyle \ln \left({\frac {\Box }{\mu ^{2}}}\right)=\int _{0}^{+\infty }ds\,\
left({\frac {1}{\mu ^{2}+s}}-{\frac {1}{\Box +s}}\right).}
By treating general relativity as an effective field theory, one can actually make
legitimate predictions for quantum gravity, at least for low-energy phenomena. An
example is the well-known calculation of the tiny first-order quantum-mechanical
correction to the classical Newtonian gravitational potential between two masses.
[30] Moreover, one can compute the quantum gravitational corrections to classical
thermodynamic properties of black holes, most importantly the entropy. A rigorous
derivation of the quantum gravitational corrections to the entropy of Schwarzschild
black holes was provided by Calmet and Kuipers.[36] A generalisation for charged
(Reissner–Nordström) black holes was subsequently carried out by Campos Delgado.
[37]

Spacetime background dependence

Main article: Background independence
A fundamental lesson of general relativity is that there is no fixed spacetime
background, as found in Newtonian mechanics and special relativity; the spacetime
geometry is dynamic. While simple to grasp in principle, this is a complex idea to
understand about general relativity, and its consequences are profound and not
fully explored, even at the classical level. To a certain extent, general
relativity can be seen to be a relational theory,[38] in which the only physically
relevant information is the relationship between different events in space-time.

On the other hand, quantum mechanics has depended since its inception on a fixed
background (non-dynamic) structure. In the case of quantum mechanics, it is time
that is given and not dynamic, just as in Newtonian classical mechanics. In
relativistic quantum field theory, just as in classical field theory, Minkowski
spacetime is the fixed background of the theory.

String theory

Interaction in the subatomic world: world lines of point-like particles in the

Standard Model or a world sheet swept up by closed strings in string theory
String theory can be seen as a generalization of quantum field theory where instead
of point particles, string-like objects propagate in a fixed spacetime background,
although the interactions among closed strings give rise to space-time in a dynamic
way. Although string theory had its origins in the study of quark confinement and
not of quantum gravity, it was soon discovered that the string spectrum contains
the graviton, and that "condensation" of certain vibration modes of strings is
equivalent to a modification of the original background. In this sense, string
perturbation theory exhibits exactly the features one would expect of a
perturbation theory that may exhibit a strong dependence on asymptotics (as seen,
for example, in the AdS/CFT correspondence) which is a weak form of background
dependence.
Background independent theories
Loop quantum gravity is the fruit of an effort to formulate a background-
independent quantum theory.

Topological quantum field theory provided an example of background-independent

quantum theory, but with no local degrees of freedom, and only finitely many
degrees of freedom globally. This is inadequate to describe gravity in 3+1
dimensions, which has local degrees of freedom according to general relativity. In
2+1 dimensions, however, gravity is a topological field theory, and it has been
successfully quantized in several different ways, including spin networks.[citation
needed]

Semi-classical quantum gravity

Main articles: Quantum field theory in curved spacetime and Semiclassical gravity
Quantum field theory on curved (non-Minkowskian) backgrounds, while not a full
quantum theory of gravity, has shown many promising early results. In an analogous
way to the development of quantum electrodynamics in the early part of the 20th
century (when physicists considered quantum mechanics in classical electromagnetic
fields), the consideration of quantum field theory on a curved background has led
to predictions such as black hole radiation.

Phenomena such as the Unruh effect, in which particles exist in certain

accelerating frames but not in stationary ones, do not pose any difficulty when
considered on a curved background (the Unruh effect occurs even in flat Minkowskian
backgrounds). The vacuum state is the state with the least energy (and may or may
not contain particles).

Problem of time
Main article: Problem of time
A conceptual difficulty in combining quantum mechanics with general relativity
arises from the contrasting role of time within these two frameworks. In quantum
theories time acts as an independent background through which states evolve, with
the Hamiltonian operator acting as the generator of infinitesimal translations of
quantum states through time.[39] In contrast, general relativity treats time as a
dynamical variable which relates directly with matter and moreover requires the
Hamiltonian constraint to vanish.[40] Because this variability of time has been
observed macroscopically, it removes any possibility of employing a fixed notion of
time, similar to the conception of time in quantum theory, at the macroscopic
level.

Candidate theories
There are a number of proposed quantum gravity theories.[41] Currently, there is
still no complete and consistent quantum theory of gravity, and the candidate
models still need to overcome major formal and conceptual problems. They also face
the common problem that, as yet, there is no way to put quantum gravity predictions
to experimental tests, although there is hope for this to change as future data
from cosmological observations and particle physics experiments become available.
[42][43]

String theory
Main article: String theory

Projection of a Calabi–Yau manifold, one of the ways of compactifying the extra

dimensions posited by string theory
The central idea of string theory is to replace the classical concept of a point
particle in quantum field theory with a quantum theory of one-dimensional extended
objects: string theory.[44] At the energies reached in current experiments, these
strings are indistinguishable from point-like particles, but, crucially, different
modes of oscillation of one and the same type of fundamental string appear as
particles with different (electric and other) charges. In this way, string theory
promises to be a unified description of all particles and interactions.[45] The
theory is successful in that one mode will always correspond to a graviton, the
messenger particle of gravity; however, the price of this success is unusual
features such as six extra dimensions of space in addition to the usual three for
space and one for time.[46]

In what is called the second superstring revolution, it was conjectured that both
string theory and a unification of general relativity and supersymmetry known as
supergravity[47] form part of a hypothesized eleven-dimensional model known as M-
theory, which would constitute a uniquely defined and consistent theory of quantum
gravity.[48][49] As presently understood, however, string theory admits a very
large number (10500 by some estimates) of consistent vacua, comprising the so-
called "string landscape". Sorting through this large family of solutions remains a
major challenge.

Loop quantum gravity

Main article: Loop quantum gravity

Simple spin network of the type used in loop quantum gravity

Loop quantum gravity seriously considers general relativity's insight that
spacetime is a dynamical field and is therefore a quantum object. Its second idea
is that the quantum discreteness that determines the particle-like behavior of
other field theories (for instance, the photons of the electromagnetic field) also
affects the structure of space.

The main result of loop quantum gravity is the derivation of a granular structure
of space at the Planck length. This is derived from following considerations: In
the case of electromagnetism, the quantum operator representing the energy of each
frequency of the field has a discrete spectrum. Thus the energy of each frequency
is quantized, and the quanta are the photons. In the case of gravity, the operators
representing the area and the volume of each surface or space region likewise have
discrete spectra. Thus area and volume of any portion of space are also quantized,
where the quanta are elementary quanta of space. It follows, then, that spacetime
has an elementary quantum granular structure at the Planck scale, which cuts off
the ultraviolet infinities of quantum field theory.

The quantum state of spacetime is described in the theory by means of a

mathematical structure called spin networks. Spin networks were initially
introduced by Roger Penrose in abstract form, and later shown by Carlo Rovelli and
Lee Smolin to derive naturally from a non-perturbative quantization of general
relativity. Spin networks do not represent quantum states of a field in spacetime:
they represent directly quantum states of spacetime.

The theory is based on the reformulation of general relativity known as Ashtekar

variables, which represent geometric gravity using mathematical analogues of
electric and magnetic fields.[50][51] In the quantum theory, space is represented
by a network structure called a spin network, evolving over time in discrete steps.
[52][53][54][55]

The dynamics of the theory is today constructed in several versions. One version
starts with the canonical quantization of general relativity. The analogue of the
Schrödinger equation is a Wheeler–DeWitt equation, which can be defined within the
theory.[56] In the covariant, or spinfoam formulation of the theory, the quantum
dynamics is obtained via a sum over discrete versions of spacetime, called
spinfoams. These represent histories of spin networks.

Other theories
There are a number of other approaches to quantum gravity. The theories differ
depending on which features of general relativity and quantum theory are accepted
unchanged, and which features are modified.[57][58] Examples include:

Asymptotic safety in quantum gravity

Euclidean quantum gravity
Integral method[59]
Causal dynamical triangulation[60]
Causal fermion systems
Causal Set Theory
Covariant Feynman path integral approach
Dilatonic quantum gravity
Double copy theory
Group field theory
Wheeler–DeWitt equation
Geometrodynamics
Hořava–Lifshitz gravity
MacDowell–Mansouri action
Noncommutative geometry
Path-integral based models of quantum cosmology[61]
Regge calculus
Shape Dynamics
String-nets and quantum graphity
Supergravity
Twistor theory[62]
Canonical quantum gravity
Experimental tests
As was emphasized above, quantum gravitational effects are extremely weak and
therefore difficult to test. For this reason, the possibility of experimentally
testing quantum gravity had not received much attention prior to the late 1990s.
However, in the past decade, physicists have realized that evidence for quantum
gravitational effects can guide the development of the theory. Since theoretical
development has been slow, the field of phenomenological quantum gravity, which
studies the possibility of experimental tests, has obtained increased attention.
[63]

The most widely pursued possibilities for quantum gravity phenomenology include
gravitationally mediated entanglement,[64][65] violations of Lorentz invariance,
imprints of quantum gravitational effects in the cosmic microwave background (in
particular its polarization), and decoherence induced by fluctuations[66][67][68]
in the space-time foam.[69]

ESA's INTEGRAL satellite measured polarization of photons of different wavelengths

and was able to place a limit in the granularity of space that is less than 10−48
m, or 13 orders of magnitude below the Planck scale.[70][71]

The BICEP2 experiment detected what was initially thought to be primordial B-mode
polarization caused by gravitational waves in the early universe. Had the signal in
fact been primordial in origin, it could have been an indication of quantum
gravitational effects, but it soon transpired that the polarization was due to
interstellar dust interference.[72]

See also
De Sitter relativity
Dilaton
Doubly special relativity
Gravitational decoherence
Gravitomagnetism
Hawking radiation
List of quantum gravity researchers
Orders of magnitude (length)
Penrose interpretation
Planck epoch
Planck units
Swampland (physics)
Virtual black hole
Weak Gravity Conjecture
Notes
Quantum effects in the early universe might have an observable effect on the
structure of the present universe, for example, or gravity might play a role in the
unification of the other forces. Cf. the text by Wald cited above.
On the quantization of the geometry of spacetime, see also in the article Planck
length, in the examples
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Herbert W. Hamber (2009). Hamber, Herbert W (ed.). Quantum Gravitation. Springer
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