English

Polyhedra in spacetime from null vectors

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2013-12-12 v2

Abstract

We consider convex spacelike polyhedra oriented in Minkowski space. These are the classical analogues of spinfoam intertwiners. We point out a parametrization of these shapes using null face normals, with no constraints or redundancies. Our construction is dimension-independent. In 3+1d, it provides the spacetime picture behind a well-known property of the loop quantum gravity intertwiner space in spinor form, namely that the closure constraint is always satisfied after some SL(2,C) rotation. As a simple application of our variables, we incorporate them in a 4-simplex action that reproduces the large-spin behavior of the Barrett-Crane vertex amplitude.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1308.1982,
  title  = {Polyhedra in spacetime from null vectors},
  author = {Yasha Neiman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.1982},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

12 pages, 1 figure; v2: references fixed and added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:06:31.290Z