Browsing by Author "Esposito, Giampiero"

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    Canonical and pertubative quantum gravity
    (1993) Esposito, Giampiero; physics
    After a review of Dirac's theory of iconstrained Hamiltonian systems and their quantization, canonical quantum gravity is studied relying on the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formalism. First-class constraints of the theory are studied in some detail following De Witt's work, and geometrical and topological properties of Wheeler's superspace are dis cussed following the mathematical work of Fisher. Perturbative quantum gravity is then formulated in terms of amplitudes of going from a three-metric and a matter-field configuration on a spacelike surface ~ to a three-metric and a field configuration on a spacelike surface ~'. The Wick-rotated quantum amplitudes are here studied under the assumption that the analytic continuation to the real Rieman- I nian section of the complexified space-time is possible, but this is not a generic property. Within the background-field method, one then expands both the four-metric g and mat ter fields