Review: Gas of Wormholes: A Possible Ground State of Quantum Gravity

In order to gain insight into the possible Ground State of Quantized Einstein's Gravity, we have derived a variational calculation of the energy of the quantum gravitational field in an open space, as measured by an asymptotic observer living in an asymptotically flat space-time. We find that for Quantum Gravity (QG) it is energetically favourable to perform its quantum fluctuations not upon flat space-time but around a "gas" of wormholes of mass m _p, the Planck mass (m _p 10¹⁹ GeV) and average distance l _p, the Planck length a _p(a _p 10^–33 cm). As a result, assuming such configuration to be a good approximation to the true Ground State of Quantum Gravity, space-time, the arena of physical reality, turns out to be well described by Wheeler's quantum foam and adequately modeled by a space-time lattice with lattice constant l _p, the Planck lattice.