Statistical Formulation of Background Independence in Manifestly-Covariant Quantum Gravity Theory

The notion of background independence is a distinguished feature that should characterize the conceptual foundation of any physically-acceptable theory of quantum gravity. It states that the structure of the space-time continuum described by classical General Relativity should possess an emergent character, namely, that it should arise from the quantum-dynamical gravitational field. In this paper, the above issue is addressed in the framework of manifestly-covariant quantum gravity theory. Accordingly, a statistical formulation of background independence is provided, consistent with the principle of manifest covariance. In particular, it is shown that the classical background metric tensor determining the geometric properties of space-time can be expressed consistently in terms of a suitable statistical average of the stochastic quantum gravitational field tensor. As an application, a particular realization of background independence is shown to hold for analytical Gaussian solutions of the quantum probability density function.

Automated summary

This paper addresses the issue of background independence in the framework of manifestly-covariant quantum gravity theory. A statistical formulation of background independence is provided, and it is shown that the classical background metric tensor can be consistently expressed in terms of a statistical average of the quantum gravitational field tensor. Additionally, a specific realization of background independence is demonstrated using analytical Gaussian solutions of the quantum probability density function.