Introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG)

A quantum field theory describing both geometry and matter must be background independent as prescribed by the Einstein equations of General Relativity according to which geometry and matter determine each other in tandem dynamically. There is no a priori distinguished background metric which makes the framework of ordinary QFT inapplicable as it is heavily based on the locality principle which only makes sense when the causality structure of an externally prescribed background metric is known. One of the background independent approaches to quantum gravity is Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) whose principles and status we describe in this talk.