Quantum Gravity Seminar - Fall 2000

John Baez

Toby Bartels and I wrote notes for this seminar in a heavily fictionalized form: a kind of continuation of the infamous Oz and the Wizard stories, in which a powerful but grumpy wizard teaches his hapless apprentice the basics of general relativity. Most of the characters in the story were based on participants of the seminar, but Oz was also included, mainly for comic relief.

As far as physics goes, the course had two "tracks":

• Track 1 is about diagrammatic methods in linear algebra, leading up to the theory of SU(2) spin networks, especially the 6j symbols and the identities they satisfy.
• Track 2 is about the Lagrangian approach to background-free gauge field theories in dimensions 2, 3 and 4, especially BF theory and general relativity.

• Week 1, Track 1

  Week 1, Track 2

• Week 2, Track 1

  Week 2, Track 2

• Week 3, Track 1

  Week 3, Track 2

• Week 4 - A Challenge from the Masked Man

• Week 5, Track 1

  Week 5, Track 2

• Week 6, Track 1

  Week 6, Track 2

• Week 7, Track 1

  Week 7, Track 2

• Week 8, Track 1

  Week 8 - Vector Networks and the Four-Color Theorem

• Week 9, Track 1

  Week 9, Track 2

• Week 10, Track 1

  Week 10 - The Biedenharn-Elliot Identity

Miguel Carrión Álvarez wrote up notes in the form of a more traditional math/physics textbook. The current draft is available here:

• Notes on Quantum Gravity

• homework 1
• homework 2
• homework 3
• homework 4
• homework 5
• homework 6
• homework 7

We dug deeper into these topics in the Winter 2001 session... so go there if you're hungry for more!

home