What if the Big Bang was not the beginning? Where classical general relativity is usually expected to predict the presence of a cosmological singularity, corresponding the origin of the spacetime we inhabit, quantum effects cannot be neglected. Therefore, the microscopic nature of gravity might radically alter our perspective on what we (perhaps mistakenly) refer to as the first moments of our universe. In today’s interview, we explore this fascinating issue with Steffen Gielen, starting from classical cosmology and walking through the loop quantum gravity, group field theories and the most interesting applications of such frameworks to the large scale behaviour of spacetime!
Steffen Gielen is a Senior Research Fellow working in the Gravitation and Cosmology group in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sheffield. His research focuses on how quantum physics might change our understanding of the beginning of the Universe, in particular, how the Big Bang of classical cosmology could be replaced by a “Big Bounce” in quantum theories of gravity.
[adapted from [ Ссылка ]]
