Quanta of Volume

Although it may seem smooth and continuous, a liquid is just the collective motions of myriads of water molecules. At the atomic level it is discrete, it is only because of the huge numbers of molecules and their tiny size that we see a liquid as continuous.

If loop quantum gravity is correct, and there are reasons to think it is, then there is a quanta of volume which is extremely small, on the order of the Planck scale, and so numerous that spacetime appears smooth and continuous to our senses. 

Now because of our difficulties dealing with such a large collection of objects we must resort to statistics to describe their collective actions. Like the temperature of a body of water is a thermodynamic property derived from the statistical spread of molecular motion. Some molecules in the water are moving very fast while other molecules are moving very slow, but the vast majority are moving at speeds around the mean which we call the temperature.

Something similar holds for quanta of volume but that is not the most interesting feature. What is most interesting is that the same distribution holds for the links, or the loops in LQG, that connect the volume quanta. Most of the links are around the mean, most are local, and this is why we have the illusion that everything must be in contact, whether physically or through an intermediate field, to have a cause and effect.

But the links far from the mean, the ones we would consider nonlocal, are the really interesting ones. They can be used to send information over vast distances . . .

Source:

Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science – Volume quanta