Building blocks for topology change in 3D
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2007-05-23 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We investigate topology change in 3D. Using Morse theory and handle decomposition we find the set of elementary cobordisms for 3-manifolds. These are: (i) \O <-> S^2; (ii) \Sigma_g <-> \Sigma_{g+1}; (iii) \Sigma_{g_1} \sqcup \Sigma_{g_2} <-> \Sigma_{g_1+g_2} and they have appealing physical interpretations, e.g. Big Bang/Big Crunch, wormhole creation/annihilation and Einstein-Rosen bridge creation/annihilation, respectively. This decomposition into building blocks can be used in the path integral approach to quantum gravity in the sum over topologies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9711069,
title = {Building blocks for topology change in 3D},
author = {Radu Ionicioiu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9711069},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
12 pages, LaTeX, 13 figures, uses epsf