English

Dominant Topologies in Euclidean Quantum Gravity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2010-04-28 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The dominant topologies in the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity differ sharply according on the sign of the cosmological constant. For Λ>0\Lambda>0, saddle points can occur only for topologies with vanishing first Betti number and finite fundamental group. For Λ<0\Lambda<0, on the other hand, the path integral is dominated by topologies with extremely complicated fundamental groups; while the contribution of each individual manifold is strongly suppressed, the ``density of topologies'' grows fast enough to overwhelm this suppression. The value Λ=0\Lambda=0 is thus a sort of boundary between phases in the sum over topologies. I discuss some implications for the cosmological constant problem and the Hartle-Hawking wave function.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9710114,
  title  = {Dominant Topologies in Euclidean Quantum Gravity},
  author = {S. Carlip},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9710114},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

14 pages, LaTeX. Minor additions (computability, relation to ``minimal volume'' in topology); error in eqn (3.5) corrected; references added. To appear in Class. Quant. Grav

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:53:47.836Z