Deriving spacetime from first principles

Abstract

Causal Dynamical Triangulation is a back-to-basics approach to nonperturbative, background-independent quantum gravity, which relies on few ingredients and initial assumptions, has few free parameters and – crucially – is amenable to numerical simulations. After putting the approach in context, we briefly describe its set-up and highlight some of its major, and sometimes unexpected findings. Prominent among them is the dynamical generation of a classical de Sitter universe from Planckian quantum fluctuations.