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Three key aspects of quantum gravity are considered in this book: phenomenology, potential experimental aspects and foundational theory. The phenomenology is the treatment of metric quantum fluctuations as torsional curves that deviate from classical expectations. This leads to possible experimental configurations that may detect such fluctuations. Most of these proposed experiments are quantum optical measurements of subtle quantum gravity effects in the interaction of photons and atoms. The foundational discussions attempt to find an substratum to string theories, which are motivated by the phenomenological treatment. Quantum gravity is not the quantization of general relativity, but is instead the embedding of quantum theory and gravitation into a more fundamental field theoretic framework.

It is well known that classical electrodynamics is riddled with internal inconsistencies springing from the fact that it is a linear, Abelian theory in which the potentials are unphysical. This volume offers a self-consistent hypothesis which removes some of these problems, as well as builds a framework on which linear and nonlinear optics are treated as a non-Abelian gauge field theory based on the emergence of the fundamental magnetizing field of radiation, the B(3) field.

Contents:

• Interaction of Electromagnetic Radiation with One Fermion
• The Field Equations of Classical O(3)_b Electrodynamics
• Origin of Electrodynamics in the General Theory of Gauge Fields
• Nonlinear Propagation in O(3)_b Electrodynamics: Solitons and Instantons
• Physical Phase Effects in O(3)_b Electrodynamics
• Quantum Electrodynamics and the B⁽³⁾ Field
• Quantum Chaos, Topological Indices and Gauge Theories
• Field Theory of O(3)_b QED and Unification with Weak and Nuclear Interactions
• Potential Applications of O(3)_b QED
• Duality and Fundamental Problems

Readership: Graduate and undergraduates in physics (electromagnetism), differential geometry & topology, electrical & electronic engineering, theoretical & physical chemistry, chaos and dynamical systems.

"? beginners may benefit from the exhaustive references to the literature of contemporary workers in the field." -- Zentralblatt MATH