Dominant Topologies in Euclidean Quantum Gravity
Abstract
The dominant topologies in the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity differ sharply according on the sign of the cosmological constant. For , saddle points can occur only for topologies with vanishing first Betti number and finite fundamental group. For , 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 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.
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