Prof. dr. Djordje Minić, Department of Physics, Virginia Tech -
http://www1.phys.vt.edu/~dminic/   (biography included)

TITLE: QUANTUM GRAVITY = GRAVITIZED QUANTUM THEORY

  Abstract:

  In this seminar I will introduce the general problem of quantum gravity
and then I will discuss a new approach to this problem in which the
quantum mechanical structures that are traditionally fixed, such as the
Fubini-Study metric in the Hilbert space of states, become dynamical and
so implement the idea of gravitizing the quantum. I will elaborate on a
specific test of this new approach to quantum gravity using triple
interference in a varying gravitational field. My discussion will be
driven by a profound analogy with recent triple-path interference
experiments performed in the context of non-linear optics. I will
emphasize that the triple interference experiment in a varying
gravitational field would deeply influence the present understanding of
the kinematics of quantum gravity and quantum gravity phenomenology. I
will also discuss the non-linear Talbot effect as another striking
phenomenological probe of gravitization of the geometry of quantum
theory. Finally, I will discuss the bounds this new approach to quantum
gravity implies for the cosmological constant, the Higgs mass and the
masses and mixing matrices of quarks and leptons.