Current Research Programme
The central issues guiding my research are:
- What is general relativity? Is it irreducibly a theory of curved four-dimensional spacetime or is it a dynamical theory of the evolution of three-dimensional geometry?
- What are the implications of the holistic relational structure of classical general relativity for the quantization of the theory?
- Shapes (local conformal geometry in three dimensions) play the dominant role in the dynamics of general relativity. The theory of shapes needs to be developed within the framework of differential geometry.
- In my The End of Time I argue that the wave function of the universe is static and that the appearance of the flow of time emerges because the wave function of the universe is concentrated on configurations of the universe that we recognize as records. Edward Anderson and I are currently trying to develop this idea and create a theory of records. If successful, this work promises to explain the origin of the arrow of time at a fundamental level.
FQXi grant for Machian Quantum Gravity
I have recently received funding for my research programme from The Foundational Questions in Physics and Cosmology Institute (FQXi). It provides some funds for collaborative work. If you are interested in these issues and the possibility of collaborating, please contact me. The detailed proposal is available here (pdf).
Perimeter Institute seminars
In September 2008, I visited the Perimeter Institute and gave three talks covering much of my research programme. Videos of the seminars are available online at the Perimeter Institute site (the flash version of "Some issues in quantum gravity" does not work at the time of posting).
My collaborator Brendan Foster also gave a talk about our reevaluation of Dirac's theorem on constraints and gauge transformations.