This Edited Volume is based on a workshop on “Mathematical and Physical - pects of Quantum Gravity” held at the Heinrich-Fabri Institute in Blaubeuren st (Germany) from July 28th to August 1 , 2005. This workshop was the succ- sor of a similar workshop held at the same place in September 2003 on the issue of “Mathematical and Physical Aspects of Quantum Field Theories”. Both wo- shops were intended to bring together mathematicians and physicists to discuss profoundquestionswithin the non-emptyintersectionofmathematics andphysics. The basic idea of this series of workshops is to cover a broad range of di?erent approaches (both mathematical and physical) to a speci?c subject in mathema- cal physics. The series of workshops is intended, in particular, to discuss the basic conceptual ideas behind di?erent mathematical and physical approaches to the subject matter concerned. The workshop on which this volume is based was devoted to what is c- monly regarded as the biggest challenge in mathematical physics: the “quanti- tion of gravity”. The gravitational interaction is known to be very di?erent from the known interactions like, for instance, the electroweak or strong interaction of elementary particles. First of all, to our knowledge, any kind of energy has a gravitational coupling. Second, since Einstein it is widely accepted that gravity is intimately related to the structure of space-time. Both facts have far reaching consequences for any attempt to develop a quantum theory of gravity.
From the reviews:
"Presents a selection of contributions presented at the workshop 'Mathematical and Physical aspects of Quantum Gravity' ... . presentation of various approaches to quantum gravity in one volume is rather unique and provides reader with an opportunity to compare their advantages and disadvantages. A significant advantage of this volume is that the articles are written in a less technical style, focusing only on major theoretical questions, with many contributions being accessible to non-specialists and thus providing a broad overview of this fascinating field of research." (Vojtech Pravda, Applications of Mathematics, Vol. 55 (5), 2010)
"Presents a selection of contributions presented at the workshop 'Mathematical and Physical aspects of Quantum Gravity' ... . presentation of various approaches to quantum gravity in one volume is rather unique and provides reader with an opportunity to compare their advantages and disadvantages. A significant advantage of this volume is that the articles are written in a less technical style, focusing only on major theoretical questions, with many contributions being accessible to non-specialists and thus providing a broad overview of this fascinating field of research." (Vojtech Pravda, Applications of Mathematics, Vol. 55 (5), 2010)