Concept

What is space-time? How did the universe begin? Various approaches exist toward theories of quantum gravity that can answer such fundamental questions. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses and should capture, at least partially, some essential aspect of quantum gravity. It may be a way of thinking or a computational method. But they are studied almost independently, and there seem to be a few opportunities to discuss their relationships and share their ideas. Therefore, it should be effective and fruitful to learn about various aspects of quantum gravity in different approaches, whether fashionable or not, and to freely combine them to reconsider quantum gravity from various angles. Quantum Gravity Gatherings, a study group of iTHEMS, will offer an intensive lecture series on various approaches to quantum gravity as an opportunity for people of different generations and disciplines to learn and share ideas.

The lectures have the following characteristics.

- The lectures are designed to help participants experience and understand the most essential ideas of each approach.

- The lecture will not be an overview of the field but rather a demonstration of typical concrete calculations so that participants can experience the unique thinking behind the approach. The reason is that behind the concrete calculation procedures, there are many elements that are necessary in actual research (like the way of thinking and the way of transforming equations by hand calculations).

- Therefore, the contents do not necessarily need to be state-of-the-art; rather, the lectures are to be given in a way that the fundamental aspects of the topic are described in a dedicated manner. It may be from a historical or modern standpoint.

- It does not necessarily have to be a direct theory or model of quantum gravity, but includes related fields motivated by quantum gravity. In this sense, this series has a broad meaning.

- They will be given blackboard-style in English and be onsite events, and will not be broadcasted online. This can be expected to lead to more active discussions and learning. We would like to aim for smaller but more intense gatherings, than the number of participants.

- The main target audiences are graduate students and young researchers. We can partially support their travel and accommodation fees. The program will also include short talk sessions, where interested participants can give a 5 min talk on a topic of their choice (their research, reviews on some works, what they want to study in the future, etc.). This should make participants more active and promote communication across generations.

Through this style of the lectures, we hope that participants will feel a concrete sense of the approaches and apply it to their own daily research and study, and we look forward to future research results that go beyond existing methods and disciplines.

Facilitators

Yuta Hamada (KEK)
Puttarak Jai-akson (iTHEMS)
Christy Kelly (iTHEMS)
Ryo Namba (iTHEMS)
Toshifumi Noumi (The University of Tokyo)
Naritaka Oshita (Kyoto Hakubi/iTHEMS)
Sotaro Sugishita (YITP)
Yuki Yokokura (iTHEMS) *Contact at yuki.yokokura@riken.jp