Large quantum gravity effects: backreaction on matter

We reexamine the large quantum gravity effects discovered by Ashtekar in the context of 2+1 dimensional gravity coupled to matter. We study an alternative one-parameter family of coherent states of the theory in which the large quantum gravity effects on the metric can be diminished, at the expense of losing coherence in the matter sector. Which set of states is the one that occurs in nature will determine if the large quantum gravity effects are actually observable as wild fluctuations of the metric or rapid loss of coherence of matter fields.