Loll works on developing a theory of quantum gravity, reconciling the beautiful geometric
description of space and time laid out in Einstein's theory of General Relativity
with the insight that all of physics at its most fundamental level must be described by
quantum laws of motion. She is one of the pioneers of a new approach to the nonperturbative
quantization of gravity, that of Causal Dynamical Triangulations which in recent times
has produced a number of remarkable results. These include a dynamical derivation
of the fact that
space-time is four-dimensional (something that can be taken for granted
only in classical gravity)
and that
it has the shape of a de Sitter Universe (like our own universe in the absence
of matter),
and of the so-called wave function of the universe
which plays an important role in understanding the quantum behaviour of the very early universe.
Remarkably, one also finds that the dimensionality of spacetime reduces smoothly to two
at short distances, indicative of a highly nonclassical behaviour of spacetime geometry
near the Planck scale.
These results are obtained by superposing elementary quantum excitations of geometry
which have a causal structure (allowing us to distinguish between cause and effect)
built into them at the very smallest scale.
Loll is
recipient of a VICI award by the
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
She is Editorial Board member and Subject Editor of the international journal
Living
Reviews in Relativity,
and Editor of
Combinatorics, Physics and their Interactions (Annales de l'institut Henri Poincare D).
Loll is member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW),
of the
Academia Europaea and of the
Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering of the KNAW. She also is an elected fellow
of the
International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation.
Selected Publications
- N. Klitgaard and R. Loll:
How round is the quantum de Sitter universe?,
The European Physical Journal C 80 (2020) 990
[arXiv: 2006.06263, hep-th].
- R. Loll:
Quantum Gravity from Causal Dynamical Triangulations: A Review,
Classical and Quantum Gravity 37 (2020) 013002
[arXiv: 1905.08669, hep-th].
- N. Klitgaard and R. Loll:
Introducing Quantum Ricci Curvature,
Physical Review D 97 (2018) 046008
[arXiv: 1712.08847, hep-th].
- J. Ambjørn, A. Görlich, J. Jurkiewicz, A. Kreienbuehl and R. Loll:
Renormalization Group Flow in CDT,
Classical and Quantum Gravity 31 (2014) 165003
[arXiv: 1405.4585, hep-th].
- S. Jordan and R. Loll:
Causal Dynamical Triangulations without Preferred Foliation,
Physics Letters B 724 (2013) 155
[arXiv: 1305.4582, hep-th].
-
J. Ambjørn, S. Jordan, J. Jurkiewicz and R. Loll:
Second- and First-Order Phase Transitions in CDT,
Physical Review D 85 (2012) 124044
[arXiv: 1205.1229, hep-th].
- J. Ambjørn, A. Görlich, J. Jurkiewicz and R. Loll:
Planckian Birth of the Quantum de Sitter Universe,
Physical Review Letters 100 (2008) 091304
[arXiv: 0712.2485, hep-th].
- J. Ambjørn, J. Jurkiewicz and R. Loll:
Emergence of a 4D World from Causal Quantum Gravity,
Physical Review Letters 93 (2004) 131301 [arXiv: hep-th/0404156].
- A. Dasgupta and R. Loll:
Proper-Time Cure for the Conformal Sickness in Quantum Gravity,
Nuclear Physics B 606 (2001) 357-379
[arXiv: hep-th/0103186].
- J. Ambjørn and R. Loll:
Non-perturbative Lorentzian Quantum Gravity, Causality and Topology Change,
Nuclear Physics B 536 (1998) 407-434
[arXiv: hep-th/9805108].
- R. Loll:
Volume Operator in Discretized Quantum Gravity,
Physical Review Letters 75 (1995) 3048-51
[arXiv: gr-qc/9506014].
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