  The emergence of loop quantum gravity over the past two decades has
stimulated a great resurgence of interest in unifying general relativity and
quantum mechanics. Amongst a number of appealing features of this approach are
the intuitive picture of quantum geometry using spin networks and powerful
mathematical tools from gauge field theory. However, the present form of loop
quantum gravity suffers from a quantum ambiguity, due to the presence of a free
(Barbero-Immirzi) parameter. Following recent progress on the conformal
decomposition of gravitational fields, we present a new phase space for general
relativity. In addition to spin-gauge symmetry, the new phase space also
incorporates conformal symmetry making the description parameter free. The
Barbero-Immirzi ambiguity is shown to occur only if the conformal symmetry is
gauge-fixed prior to quantization. By withholding its full symmetries, the new
phase space offers a promising platform for the future development of loop
quantum gravity. This paper aims to provide an exposition, at a reduced
technical level, of the above theoretical advances and their background
developments. Further details are referred to cited references.
