English

Symmetry-breaking and zero-one laws

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2020-08-26 v1 High Energy Physics - Lattice High Energy Physics - Theory Probability

Abstract

We offer further evidence that discreteness of the sort inherent in a causal set cannot, in and of itself, serve to break Poincar{\'e} invariance. In particular we prove that a Poisson sprinkling of Minkowski spacetime cannot endow spacetime with a distinguished spatial or temporal orientation, or with a distinguished lattice of spacetime points, or with a distinguished lattice of timelike directions (corresponding respectively to breakings of reflection-invariance, translation-invariance, and Lorentz invariance). Along the way we provide a proof from first principles of the zero-one law on which our new arguments are based.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.06070,
  title  = {Symmetry-breaking and zero-one laws},
  author = {Fay Dowker and Rafael D. Sorkin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.06070},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

plainTeX, 19 pages, no figures. Most current version will be available at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/personal/rsorkin/some.papers/ (or wherever my home-page may be)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:14:16.668Z