Noncommutative Gravity and Quantum Field Theory on Noncommutative Curved Spacetimes

Abstract: The focus of this PhD thesis is on applications, new developments and extensions of the noncommutative gravity theory proposed by Julius Wess and his group. In part one we propose an extension of the usual symmetry reduction procedure to noncommutative gravity. We classify in the case of abelian Drinfel'd twists all consistent deformations of spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies and of the Schwarzschild black hole. The deformed symmetry structure allows us to obtain exact solutions of the noncommutative Einstein equations in many of our models. In part two we develop a new formalism for quantum field theory on noncommutative curved spacetimes by combining methods from the algebraic approach to quantum field theory with noncommutative differential geometry. We also study explicit examples of deformed wave operators and find that there can be noncommutative corrections even on the level of free field theories. The convergent deformation of simple toy models is investigated and it is found that these theories have an improved behaviour at short distances, i.e. in the ultraviolet. In part three we study homomorphisms between and connections on noncommutative vector bundles. We prove that all homomorphisms and connections of the deformed theory can be obtained by applying a quantization isomorphism to undeformed homomorphisms and connections. The extension of homomorphisms and connections to tensor products of bimodules is clarified. As a nontrivial application of the new mathematical formalism we extend our studies of exact noncommutative gravity solutions to more general deformations.