Carlo Rovelli

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Carlo Rovelli bigraphy, stories - Italian physicist

Carlo Rovelli : biography

3 May 1956 –

Carlo Rovelli (born 3 May 1956) is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy and the USA, and currently works in France. His work is mainly in the field of quantum gravity, where he is among the founders of the loop quantum gravity theory. He has also worked in the history and philosophy of science. He collaborates regularly with several Italian newspapers, in particular the cultural supplements of Il Sole 24 Ore and La Repubblica.

Main recognitions

  • Senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)
  • Honorary Professor of the Beijing Normal University in China
  • Member of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences
  • Honorary member of the Accademia di Scienze Arti e Lettere di Verona
  • 1995 International Xanthopoulos Award for his contributions to theoretical physics
  • 2009 First "community" prize of the FQXi contest on the "nature of time"

Books

  • "Fatti Nostri", Bertani editore, 1977, (re-edited Rimini, Nda Press, 2007), ISBN 978-88-89035-17-7
  • "Quantum Gravity", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-83733-2
  • "What is time, what is space?", Di Renzo Editore, 2006, ISBN 88-8323-146-5
    • "Qu’est-ce le temps? Qu’est-ce l’espace?", Bernard Gilson éditeur, ISBN 2-87269-159-6
    • "Che cos’è il tempo? Che cos’è lo spazio?", Di Renzo Editore, ISBN 88-8323-082-5
  • "The first scientist. Anaximander and his legacy", Westholme Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59416-131-5
    • "Anaximandre de Millet, ou la naissance de la science", , 2009. ISBN 978-2-10-052939-1
    • "Che cos’è la scienza. La rivoluzione di Anassimandro", Mondadori Università, 2011 ISBN 978-88-6184-075-1
  • “假如时间不存在”("Si le temps n’existait pas")translation in simplified chinese edition May,2013.化学工业出版社 北京(chemical industry press, Beijing)ISBN 9787122163875

Main contributions

Loop quantum gravity

In 1988 Carlo Rovelli, Lee Smolin, and Abhay Ashtekar introduced a theory of quantum gravity called loop quantum gravity. In 1995 Rovelli and Smolin obtained a basis of states of quantum gravity, labelled by Penrose’s spin networks, and using this basis they were able to show that the theory predicts that area and volume are quantized. This result indicates the existence of a discrete structure of space at very small scale. In 1997 Rovelli and Michael Reisenberger introduced a "sum over surfaces" formulation of theory, which has since evolved into the currently covariant "spinfoam" version of loop quantum gravity. In 2008, in collaboration with Jonathan Engle and Roberto Pereira, he has introduced the spin foam vertex amplitude which is the basis of the current definition of the loop quantum gravity covariant dynamics. The loop theory is today considered a leading candidate for a quantum theory of gravity. It finds applications in quantum cosmology, spinfoam cosmology, and quantum black hole physics.

Physics without time

In his 2004 book Quantum Gravity, Rovelli developed a formulation of classical and quantum mechanics that does not make explicit reference to the notion of time. The timeless formalism is needed to describe the world in the regimes where the quantum properties of the gravitational field cannot be disregarded. This is because the quantum fluctuation of spacetime itself make the notion of time unsuitable for writing physical laws in the conventional form of evolution laws in time.

This position has led him to face the following problem: if time is not part of the fundamental theory of the world, then how does time emerge? In 1993, in collaboration with Alain Connes, Rovelli has proposed a solution to this problem called the thermal time hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, time emerges only in a thermodynamic or statistical context. If this is correct, the flow of time is an illusion, one deriving from the incompleteness of knowledge.