Speaker
Prof.
Steven Carlip
(University of California at Davis)
Description
If gravity is asymptotically safe, we expect operators to exhibit anomalous scaling at the UV fixed point in a way that makes the theory effectively two-dimensional. A number of independent lines of evidence, based on different approaches to quantization, indicate a similar short distance dimensional reduction. I will review the evidence for this behavior — emphasizing the physical question of what one means by "dimension" in a quantum spacetime — and will discuss possible mechanisms that could explain the universality of this phenomenon.
