Lee Smolin | Perimeter Institute

Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who works mainly on the problem of quantum gravity. He also has contributed to cosmology, the foundations of quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical biology, philosophy of science and, recently, economics. In quantum gravity Dr. Smolin was one of the initiators of two research programs: loop quantum gravity and deformed special relativity. He has the last few years been pioneering a new direction based on the hypothesis that time is a fundamental and irreducible aspect of nature, and that the fundamental laws of nature evolve irreversibly. This approach aims to solve both quantum gravity and the problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics, by proposing a theory which is a simultaneous completion of quantum mechanics and general relativity. The theory he is currently constructing is called the causal theory of views: CTV. Among the issues his papers address in the last decade are: -Time asymmetric extensions of general relativity and their implications for cosmology. -The principle of relative locality, a new extension of special relativity applicable to the phenomenology of quantum gravity. -A new approach to quantum foundations based on a new real ensemble interpretation of quantum states and dynamics. -The role of gauge invariance in models of economic markets, such as the Arrow-Debreu model and agent based models. -Quantum gravity phenomenology, in particular the constraints on deforming and breaking lorentz invariance coming from observations of Gamma Ray Bursts from the Fermi space telescope, in collaboration with Giovanni Amelino-Camelia. -The question of whether laws of physics can evolve on a cosmological time scale and related issues in the philosophy of time, in collaboration with Roberto Mangabeira Unger. -An extension of the Plebanski formulation of general relativity which leads to a unification with Yang-Mills and Higgs fields, in collaboration with Garrett Lisi and Simone Speziale. -Derivations of deformed special relativity from semiclassical quantum gravity.