Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 5: Philosophie der Physik IV

AGPhil 5.2: Talk

Friday, March 16, 2018, 10:15–10:45, H 2033

Have We Lost Spacetime on the Way? Narrowing the Gap Between General Relativity and Quantum Gravity — Baptiste LeBihan and •Niels Linnemann — University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

In the recent literature much has been written on the emergence of general relativity from quantum gravity theories. Important features of space and time are taken to be missing in quantum gravity, allegedly requiring an explanation of the emergence of spacetime from non-spatio-temporal theories. We explore which aspects of spacetime are emergent in different approaches to QG and within GR and highlight that Lorentz symmetry remains generally untouched. In any case, any approach to QG seems to start with an in-built distinction between something time-like and something space-like. We point out that spacetime in an important sense is already emerging in the context of GR when understood from a dynamical perspective. We conclude that the alleged explanatory gap between GR and non-spatio-temporal QG theories might be reduced and that the problem of spacetime emergence may fruitfully be reshaped as a problem about the interpretation of GR itself.