Wednesday May 20th, Dr. Lucio De Simone will presenta a seminar on”Fundamental ideas and modern developments in perturbative quantum gravity”
The seminar will be online at this link https://meet.google.com/hpx-jwdk-pxp
Abstract
In this presentation, we review the theoretical framework underlying the description of gravity as a quantum field theory. The first part is devoted to massive and massless spin-2 fields, with particular attention to the Fierz–Pauli formulation, the Stueckelberg method, and the vDVZ discontinuity. We then discuss alternative mediators for the gravitational interaction and explain why the graviton occupies a special role, leading naturally to soft theorems and to the emergence of the equivalence principle. This is followed by a gauge-theoretic perspective on general relativity, based on general coordinate transformations and vierbein fields. The final part addresses the non-renormalizability of gravity, motivating its interpretation as an effective field theory at low energies, and explores quantum corrections, Faddeev–Popov ghosts, and possible non-local effects in gravitational wave propagation. Overall, the presentation highlights how general relativity can be consistently understood within perturbative quantum field theory, while emphasizing the extreme smallness of quantum gravitational corrections.
