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hep-lat
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The task of uniting the two pillars of 20th century
physics -- quantum mechanics and general relativity -- is one
of the most
sought-after and challenging goals of theoretical physics.
One possible
approach to such a theory of quantum gravity involves replacing
continuous
spacetime with a finite simplicial mesh. Quantum fluctuations
of geometry
are included by allowing changes in the mesh. The resulting
theories can be
described by a partition function analogous to those studied
in statistical
mechanics. Simon has been a pioneer in this approach to
quantum gravity - his work in developing renormalization group
approaches to such theories is now standard.
One of the principal advantages to this approach is that this very complex theory can now be studied by computational simulation techniques. Research in this field draws on many areas of expertise -- knowlege of quantum field theory, statistical physics, numerical algorithms for Monte Carlo simulation, and programming parallel computers. |