Absolute concepts of time and energy are integral to standard thermal physics, but background independent systems are devoid of them. This thesis explores the f
Following the fundamental insights from quantum mechanics and general relativity, geometry itself should have a quantum description; the search for a complete u
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Geometric Science of Information, GSI 2019, held in Toulouse, France, in August 201
Quantum gravity has developed into a fast-growing subject in physics and it is expected that probing the high-energy and high-curvature regimes of gravitating s
This is a textbook which gradually introduces the student to the statistical mechanical study of the different phases of matter and to the phase transitions bet