An Effective Model of the Spacetime Foam

By Vladimir Dzhunushaliev. 2000

208 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The notion of a spacetime foam was introduced by Wheeler [1,2] for the description of the possible complex structure of the spacetime on the Planck scale (L pl ≈ 10-33cm). This hypothesized spacetime foam is a set of quantum wormholes (WH) (handles) appearing in the spacetime on the Planck scale level (see Fig.l). For the macroscopic observer these quantum fluctuations are smoothed and we have an ordinary smooth manifold with the metric submitting to Einstein equations. The exact mathematical description of this phenomenon is very difficult and even though there is a doubt: does the Feynman path integral in the gravity contain a topology change of the spacetime? This question spring up because (according to the Morse theory) the singular points must arise by the topology change. In such points the time arrow is undefined that leads in difficulties at definition of the Lorentzian metric, curvature tensor and so on. The main goal of this paper is to submit an effective model ofthe spacetime foam.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0cf889ac596e88ef48922ae4706ccb2e92c76bf

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. C. Vafa
2. Amer Iqbal
3. F. Carta
4. N. Nekrasov
5. T. D. Brennan

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. C. Vafa
2. Amer Iqbal
3. Marcos Mariño
4. A. Okounkov
5. Mina Aganagic
6. N. Nekrasov
7. A. Klemm
8. R. Dijkgraaf

Citations in the corpus

• Quantum foam and topological strings (2003, background): “The idea that quantum gravity should lead to wild fluctuations of topology and geometry at the Planck scale is an old idea [1, 2].”
• The String Landscape, the Swampland, and the Missing Corner (2017, methodology): “From a brief analysis of the standard Einstein-Hilbert action, we see that fluctuations of the metric at the Planck scale should become very violent, leading to potential changes in the topology of the spacetime [101, 102].”