Dear all, From Paula Reichert: two talks on quantum gravity taking place tomorrow, on Zoom. Message is below. All the best Neil ———— This is a reminder for our next colloquium, Thursday, June 3: 16:00 CEST (Brussels time) with our next speakers: Francesca Vidotto Title: If you want to built an universe from scratch you must fist invent a quantum state of the geometry Abstract: The application of the covariant LQG techniques to the universe allows to compute cosmological observable in the deep quantum regime of the early universe. In particular, it is possible to define a cosmological quantum state and study its property. This approach differs from the standard procedure in cosmology, where a primordial vacuum state needs to be assumed to provide the initial condition of the successive evolution. In this talk I will present how such a quantum state can be constructed, providing a spinfoam analogue of the Hartle-Hawking wave function of the universe. I will emphasize the conceptual steps that needs to be taken in defining the appropriate observable and the relevant degrees of freedom. I will present the first results obtained with improved numerical techniques. Stefano Liberati Title: Hearts of Darkness: probing of black holes inside out Abstract: Black holes are the purest expression of gravity and at the same time the places where our best theory of gravitation, Einstein General Relativity, meets its demise in the form of singularities. We know, however, that any successful theory of quantum gravity should be able to resolve these uncharted regions, but can they do so without showing any modification outside the event horizon? can real black holes be undistinguishable from the one predicted by general relativity? The recent direct observation of these tantalising objects represents an unprecedented possibility to answer these questions. In this talk, we shall explore on general grounds what alternative objects we can expect from a quantum gravity induced regularisation of singularities and discuss what observations can or will tell us about their nature. Please find the ZOOM registration link in the schedule under “Join live on Zoom": laws-of-nature.net <http://laws-of-nature.net/> This link will lead you to a ZOOM registration page from which you will obtain the ZOOM link for the session. Please only share the above link or the registration link but not the link to the session as with the latter only one person (the fastest ;) ) will be able to join. All news and updates will be posted on laws-of-nature.net <http://laws-of-nature.net/>. We thank you very much for the increased interest and hope for your understanding that we cannot answer all the emails one by one. We however made sure that every sender was signed up to this newsletter except those who gave UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject. Looking forward to having you! The organizers Angelo Bassi (U Trieste) Dirk- André Deckert (LMU Munich) Ward Struyve (U Leuven)