Space, Time, Matter in Quantum Gravity

Abstract: The concepts of space, time, and matter are of central importance in any theory of the gravitational field. Here I discuss the role that these concepts might play in quantum theories of gravity. To be concrete, I will focus on the most conservative approach, which is quantum geometrodynamics. It turns out that spacetime is absent at the most fundamental level and emerges only in an appropriate limit. It is expected that the dynamics of matter can only be understood from a fundamental quantum theory of all interactions.