Related papers: Gravity and Matter in Causal Set Theory
We present a framework for the dynamics of causal sets and coupled matter fields, which is a simplification and generalization of an approach we recently proposed. Given a set of fields including the gravitational one, the main step in…
This is the second paper in a series on the dynamics of matter fields in the causal set approach to quantum gravity. We start with the usual expression for the Lagrangian of a charged scalar field coupled to a SU(n) Yang-Mills field, in…
The Causal Set approach to quantum gravity asserts that spacetime, at its smallest length scale, has a discrete structure. This discrete structure takes the form of a locally finite order relation, where the order, corresponding with the…
The causal set approach to quantum gravity embodies the concepts of causality and discreteness. This article explores some foundational and conceptual issues within causal set theory.
Causal set quantum gravity is a Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, based on the causal structure of spacetime. It models each spacetime configuration as a discrete causal network of spacetime points. As such, key questions of the…
We generalize and unify the $f(R,T)$ and $f(R,L_m)$ type gravity models by assuming that the gravitational Lagrangian is given by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar $R$, of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor $T$, and of the…
This paper presents an brief review of some recent work on the causal set approach to quantum gravity. Causal sets are a discretisation of spacetime that allow the symmetries of GR to be preserved in the continuum approximation. One…
In the causal set approach to quantum gravity the spacetime continuum arises as an approximation to a fundamentally discrete substructure, the causal set, which is a locally finite partially ordered set. The causal set paradigm was…
We generalize the $f(R)$ type gravity models by assuming that the gravitational Lagrangian is given by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar $R$ and of the matter Lagrangian $L_m$. We obtain the gravitational field equations in the…
Causal set theory provides a model of discrete spacetime in which spacetime events are represented by elements of a causal set---a locally finite, partially ordered set in which the partial order represents the causal relationships between…
After sketching a context in which to seek observable signals of spatio-temporal discreteness, I briefly review the status of the causal set program for quantum gravity, concluding with a simple model for the field produced by a moving…
The ideas of spacetime discreteness and causality are important in several of the popular approaches to quantum gravity. But if discreteness is accepted as an initial assumption, conflict with Lorentz invariance can be a consequence. The…
There are numerous indications that a discrete substratum underlies continuum spacetime. Any fundamentally discrete approach to quantum gravity must provide some prescription for how continuum properties emerge from the underlying…
This is is a copy of dissertation that I have submitted in defense of my ph.d. thesis, with some minor changes that I have made since then. The goal of the project is to generalize matter fields and their Lagrangians from regular space time…
The requirement that both the matter and the geometry of a spacetime canonically evolve together, starting and ending on shared Cauchy surfaces and independently of the intermediate foliation, leaves one with little choice for…
We begin by describing a sequential growth model in which the universe grows one element at a time in discrete time steps. At each step, the process has the form of a causal set and the "completed" universe is given by a path consisting of…
We generalize previous work by considering a novel gravitational model with an action given by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar, the matter Lagrangian density, a scalar field and a kinetic term constructed from the gradients of the…
In order to construct a quantum theory of gravity, we may have to abandon certain assumptions we were making. In particular, the concept of spacetime as a continuum substratum is questioned. Causal Sets is an attempt to construct a quantum…
The causal set theory (CST) approach to quantum gravity postulates that at the most fundamental level, spacetime is discrete, with the spacetime continuum replaced by locally finite posets or "causal sets". The partial order on a causal set…
We give a variational formulation of General Relativity, with coupling to a cosmological constant, to scalar fields, to vector fields and to spinor fields (all with possible mass and interaction terms). Among the matter fields, we include…