English

Causal spinfoam vertex for 4d Lorentzian quantum gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-02-02 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We introduce a new causal spinfoam vertex for 44d Lorentzian quantum gravity. The causal data are encoded in Toller TT-matrices, which add to Wigner DD-matrices T(+)+T()=DT^{(+)}+T^{(-)}=D, and for which we provide a Feynman iε\mathrm{i}\varepsilon representation. We discuss how the Toller poles cancel in the EPRL vertex, how the Livine-Oriti model is obtained in the Barrett-Crane limit, and how spinfoam causal data are distinct from Regge causal data. In the large-spin limit, we show that only Lorentzian Regge geometries with causal data compatible with the spinfoam data are selected, resulting in a single exponential exp(+iSRegge/)\exp(+\mathrm{i}\, S_{\mathrm{Regge}}/\hbar) and a new form of causal rigidity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.23162,
  title  = {Causal spinfoam vertex for 4d Lorentzian quantum gravity},
  author = {Eugenio Bianchi and Chaosong Chen and Mauricio Gamonal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.23162},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:28:03.405Z