Quantum gravity represents the frontier where the very large meets the very small, attempting to unify Einstein's theory of gravity with the strange rules of quantum mechanics. This field explores the fundamental fabric of spacetime, seeking to understand how the universe behaves at its most extreme scales, from the heart of black holes to the moment of the Big Bang. Because these concepts often involve complex mathematics, they can feel distant to non-specialists, yet they hold the key to a complete picture of physical reality.

At Gist.Science, we bridge this gap by processing every new preprint in this category directly from arXiv. Our team provides both plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries for each paper, ensuring that groundbreaking research is accessible to everyone, from curious students to seasoned researchers. Below are the latest papers in quantum gravity, offering fresh insights into the nature of our cosmos.

⚛️ general relativity

The N-Body 2PN Hamiltonian and Numerical Integration of the Equations of Motion

This paper presents a general analytic expression for the N-body second-order post-Newtonian (2PN) Hamiltonian in the ADM gauge containing a single integral term, demonstrates that this term can be evaluated numerically to machine precision, and validates the practical feasibility of integrating the resulting equations of motion for N bodies.

Felix M. Heinze, Gerhard Schäfer, Bernd Brügmann2026-02-09
⚛️ phenomenology

Inference on inner galaxy structure via gravitational waves from supermassive binaries

By analyzing NANOGrav 15-year data to model the impact of initial galactic center density and binary eccentricity on the gravitational wave spectrum, this study infers a preferred parsec-scale central density of approximately 106M⊙pc−310^6 M_{\odot} \mathrm{pc}^{-3}, suggesting that stellar and dark matter ejections significantly shape the evolution of supermassive black hole binaries.

Yifan Chen, Matthias Daniel, Daniel J. D'Orazio, Xuanye Fan, Andrea Mitridate, Laura Sagunski, Xiao Xue, Gabriella Agazi (…)2026-02-06
⚛️ general relativity

Collective field theory of gauged multi-matrix models: Integrating out off-diagonal strings

This paper employs a specific gauge-fixing and integration order to derive a novel (2+1)(2+1)-dimensional collective field action for a two-matrix BFSS-like model, revealing non-local features that require a mass term for time-locality while recovering the standard single-matrix limit.

Suddhasattwa Brahma, Robert Brandenberger, Keshav Dasgupta, Yue Lei, Julia Pasiecznik2026-02-06
⚛️ general relativity

Scattering Gravitons off General Spinning Compact Objects to O(G2S4)\mathcal{O}(G^2 S^4)

This paper computes the classical one-loop gravitational Compton amplitude for graviton scattering off a massive spinning compact object at the second post-Minkowskian order up to quartic spin and hexadecapolar finite-size effects, deriving the corresponding scattering phase and explicitly linking the spin-independent contribution to a massless scalar probe in a Kerr background.

Dogan Akpinar2026-02-06
⚛️ general relativity

Reconstructing cosmological correlators via dispersion: from cutting to dressing rules

This paper demonstrates that tree-level cosmological correlators in de Sitter space can be systematically reconstructed from their discontinuities using momentum-space dispersion relations and cutting rules, thereby deriving dressing rules that connect these correlators to flat-space Feynman diagrams while emphasizing the fundamental role of unitarity.

Shibam Das, Debanjan Karan, Babli Khatun, Nilay Kundu2026-02-06