Quantum Gravity from Fundamental Questions to Phenomenological Applications

Abstract

Investigating quantum gravity requires a comprehension of both, general relativity and quantum field theory. Therefore this thesis starts, after a general introduction to the treated topics, with a brief review of the field theoretical aspects of gravity which are relevant for the projects described here, i.e., (i) a study of interacting fixed points for f(R) gravity coupled to matter, (ii) a calculation of the spectral dimension based on a spectral action, (iii) an investigation of the Unruh effect in different quantum gravity models, and (iv) the metric for renormalisation group improved Schwarzschild black holes.