Hannover 2003 – scientific programme

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GR: Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR II: HV II

GR II.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 24, 2003, 11:45–12:30, A310

The UV fixed point of Quantum Einstein Gravity and its cosmological consequences — •Martin Reuter — Institut für Physik, Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55099 Mainz

Recent work on the Wilsonian renormalization group flow of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) has shown that QEG is likely to be renormalizable at the nonperturbative level, thus providing a microscopic quantum theory of gravity which is consistent even at distances much smaller than then the Planck length. In this talk we discuss how the specific short-distance behavior of QEG manifests itself in the cosmology of the very early universe. A “renormalization group improvement” of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies suggests that quantum gravity effects in the early universe could solve the horizon and the flatness problem of standard cosmology without the need for an inflationary epoch.