project32086

Quantum Spacetime and Gravity in Matrix Models at one Loop

supported by the FWF, P364679

principal investigator: Harold Steinacker

project members: Tung Tran (postdoc)
Alessandro Manta (PhD student)

The starting point of this project is the covariant cosmological quantum space-time solution of the IIB or IKKT matrix model as described in

M. Sperling and H. C. Steinacker, ``Covariant cosmological quantum space-time, higher-spin and gravity in the IKKT matrix model,'' JHEP 1907, 010 (2019) [arXiv:1901.03522 [hep-th]].
H. C. Steinacker, ``On the quantum structure of space-time, gravity, and higher spin in matrix models,'
Class. Quant. Grav. \textbf{37} (2020) no.11, 113001 [arXiv:1911.03162 [hep-th]]
(this is an introductory review paper).

The main current focus is on the higher-spin gauge theory arising on that background, taking into account quantum effects at one loop. This theory is very remarkable, because it circumvents all known no-go theorem via some apparent "quasi-breaking" of Lorentz invariance. More specifically, (local) Lorentz invariance is not manifest explicitly, but arises as part of a much bigger underlying gauge symmetry of the model. Once again, the model is much more clever than naive attempts to implement such things by hand, and we are trying to understand this remarkable mechanism.

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