Paper detail

The deepest problem: some perspectives on quantum gravity

Quantum gravity is likely the deepest problem facing current physics. While traditionally associated with short distance nonrenormalizability, it is evident that the long distance problem of unitarity, arising at high energies with black hole formation, is more profound. This reveals a conflict between foundational principles of quantum field theory: those of quantum mechanics, relativity, and locality. Difficulties modifying quantum mechanics suggest a "quantum-first" approach, with other principles as mathematical properties of a quantum space of states. A challenge is how to describe locality, in terms of Hilbert space structure. Perturbative gravity gives clues, with structure apparently different than in field theory. The mathematical structure of subsystems plausibly supplants conventional locality and plays a foundational role in the theory. This view differs from one of spacetime "emerging" from another quantum system. If a black hole behaves as a subsystem, a "black hole theorem" says that unitarity requires interactions with its environment depending on its state, or more drastic phenomena. Minimal interactions can be parameterized, in an effective approach; they could arise from wormholes or other fundamental dynamics. These or other near-horizon modifications potentially alter electromagnetic or gravitational signatures of this strong gravity region, now being probed in a new era of observation; it is important to seek observational clues for or constraints on such scenarios. One may also investigate quantum gravity via its S-matrix. New perturbative structure has been discovered there, but the harder question again goes beyond to the nonperturbative regime. Long-distance behavior of amplitudes indicates novel analytic behavior; further exploration may provide important clues. Other key questions regard quantum description of cosmologies, and of associated observables.