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Quantum gravity, space-time structure, and cosmology

A set of diverse but mutually consistent results obtained in different settings has spawned a new view of loop quantum gravity and its physical implications, based on the interplay of operator calculations and effective theory: Quantum corrections modify, but do not destroy, space-time and the notion of covariance. Potentially observable effects much more promising than those of higher-curvature effective actions result; loop quantum gravity has turned into a falsifiable framework, with interesting ingredients for new cosmic world views. At Planckian densities, space-time disappears and is replaced by 4-dimensional space without evolution.