Quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, and Lorentzian geometries (Lecture notes in physics)

The first aim of this book is to describe recent work on theproblem of boundary conditions in one-loop quantumcosmology. The motivation is to understand whethersupersymmetric theories are one-loop finite in the presenceof boundaries. The second aim of the book is to present arecent, entirely new study of the singularity problem forspace-times with torsion. The book is written in self-con-tained form. In many cases problems have been initiallyformulated in the simplest possible way, and finallypresented and solved at increasing levels of complexity.Readerswill find here a detailed and updated study ofquantum cosmology, its motivation, and application toperturbative quantum gravity. Moreover, this is the firstbook which enables the reader to learn techniques used inclassical gravity and quantum cosmology.