Quote :

" Canonical Quantum Gravity Arkady Kheyfets MA 797A.001 Fall 2008 The epanded title for the class would be something like "Variational formulation of general relativity and canonical quantum gravity". The course will start with a brief review of GR and go on to introduce Hilbert and Palatini variational formalisms, followed by the hamiltonian formalism for geometrodynamics and the initial value problem in GR.This will provide the basis for study of the canonical gravity quantization. The examples will be mostly limited to quantum cosmologies as, in the case of homogeneous cosmologies, the quantum equations (Schrodinger) are PDE's (in general case they would be functional PDE's for which the theory and the techniques of solving are not very well developed). However, the presentation will stay quite general and no essential elements will be dropped. I taught a similar course several years ago and it was successful. In the end (for the final exam) students were able to quantize one of the quantum cosmologies on their own. Please, get in touch with me if you have any questions (kheyfets@math.ncsu.edu). "

mathman is he takes courses no longer. This course is interesting, it is the culmination of decades of work by Kheyfets on the problem of quantum gravity. If I understand correctly he has a mathematical solution, but no physical predictions at this time. So, it would be pretty awesome if he could find a student that could help distill a physical prediction from the mathematics. No strings, twistors, extra dimensions, non commutative geometry. Nope, just careful math and a reasonable implementation of the constraints. In other words, the standing problem of modern physics is solvable without these exotic new theories. Kheyfets' approach is very conservative if I understand correctly. That of course is debatable.

4/21/2008 5:58:32 PM

MA 797

4/21/2008 9:26:46 PM

i consider myself a physics geek, but this shit is bananas

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 9:54 PM. Reason : is he takes courses no longer as well]

4/21/2008 9:54:28 PM

wat

4/22/2008 1:01:33 AM

bad ass.


if you're in the area mathman, you could always take the class anyways.....

4/23/2008 9:48:46 AM

I'll be in another local by the Fall. I do mean to read his papers sometime, but I should work before I play...

4/23/2008 11:16:06 AM

Kheyfets couldn't even teach me Calculus 3; the last thing i'd want would be to take quantum gravity under him. So the professor who drools on himself is supposedly some genius professor at the forefront of quantum gravity research. wow

4/23/2008 12:25:34 PM

Quote :

"If I understand correctly he has a mathematical solution, but no physical predictions at this time."

Are you saying he has a solution for Quantum Gravity? If so, how has this not received more publicity? This course is obviously well beyond my abilities, but I would enjoy reading at least an abstract or a distilled version of his findings. I goggled him on both ncsu.edu and the internet and couldn't find anything. Do you have any links?

4/23/2008 1:19:28 PM

i read a book on quantum gravity once.

true story.

4/23/2008 5:54:22 PM

^^^ actually Kheyfet's relativity course was pretty good relative to some of the graduate physics courses I've taken. He is quite understandable if you make some effort.

^^ I do not know if it is a good solution. I think it is not a complete theory yet and by his admission makes no physical predictions, I think it is more of a formal approach at the moment. So while it is probably at the forefront of research, it is not widely known (my impression, not necessarily truth).

Go to the library site, use google scholar. That's how to find stuff when google fails.

Phys. Rev. D 51, 493 - 501 (1995)
Quantum geometrodynamics: Quantum-driven many-fingered time

there may be more recent papers...

I had a conversation with him once about it, that's how I know about it.

[Edited on April 23, 2008 at 6:31 PM. Reason : .]

4/23/2008 6:29:19 PM

4/23/2008 7:14:47 PM

[Edited on April 23, 2008 at 7:32 PM. Reason : doubletap]

4/23/2008 7:32:29 PM

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~amassa/


Just me, or does Amassa look like Morgan Freeman?

[Edited on April 24, 2008 at 10:27 AM. Reason : ggg]

4/24/2008 10:27:13 AM

^you are not alone in this assertion.

4/25/2008 9:57:39 AM