Related papers: Simplicity and closure constraints in spin foam mo…
It is well known that, in the first-order formalism, pure three-dimensional gravity is just the BF theory. Similarly, four-dimensional general relativity can be formulated as BF theory with an additional constraint term added to the…
Spinorial tools have recently come back to fashion in loop gravity and spin foams. They provide an elegant tool relating the standard holonomy-flux algebra to the twisted geometry picture of the classical phase space on a fixed graph, and…
Spinfoams provide a framework for the dynamics of loop quantum gravity that is manifestly covariant under the full four-dimensional diffeomorphism symmetry group of general relativity. In this way they complete the ideal of…
In the present paper, we start from the canonical theory of loop quantum gravity and the master constraint programme. The physical inner product is expressed by using the group averaging technique for a single self-adjoint master constraint…
Spin foam models are the path integral counterparts to loop quantized canonical theories. In the last few years several spin foam models of gravity have been proposed, most of which live on finite simplicial lattice spacetime. The lattice…
Spinfoam models provide a covariant formulation of the dynamics of loop quantum gravity. They are non-perturbatively defined in the group field theory (GFT) framework: the GFT partition function defines the sum of spinfoam transition…
We introduce a notion of twisted pure spinor in order to characterize, in a unified way, all the special Riemannian holonomy groups just as a classical pure spinor characterizes the special K\"ahler holonomy. Motivated by certain curvature…
A recent analysis of real general relativity based on multisymplectic techniques has shown that boundary terms may occur in the constraint equations, unless some boundary conditions are imposed. This paper studies the corresponding form of…
Numerical methods in spin-foam models have significantly advanced in the last few years, yet challenges remain in efficiently extracting results for amplitudes with many quantum degrees of freedom. In this paper we sketch a proposal for a…
In 4 dimensions, general relativity can be formulated as a constrained $BF$ theory; we show that the same is true in 2 dimensions. We describe a spinfoam quantization of this constrained BF-formulation of 2d riemannian general relativity,…
While the use of spin networks has greatly improved our understanding of the kinematical aspects of quantum gravity, the dynamical aspects remain obscure. To address this problem, we define the concept of a `spin foam' going from one spin…
We study a generalized action for gravity as a constrained BF theory, and its relationship with the Plebanski action. We analyse the discretization of the constraints and the spin foam quantization of the theory, showing that it leads…
Spherically symmetric models of loop quantum gravity have been studied recently by different methods that aim to deal with structure functions in the usual constraint algebra of gravitational systems. As noticed by Gambini and Pullin, a…
In the quest of a physical theory of quantum gravity, spin foam models, or in short spinfoams, propose a well-defined path integral summing over quantized discrete space-time geometries. At the crossroad of topological quantum field theory,…
The spin foam formalism provides transition amplitudes for loop quantum gravity. Important aspects of the dynamics are understood, but many open questions are pressing on. In this paper we address some of them using a twistorial…
This thesis is developed in the context of the spin-foam approach to quantum gravity; all results are concerned with the Lorentzian theory and with semiclassical methods. A correspondence is given between Majorana 2-spinors and time-like…
We derive the pure spin connection and constraint-free BF formulations of real four-dimensional Lorentzian vacuum General Relativity. In contrast to the existing complex formulations, an important advantage is that they do not require the…
Loop quantum gravity corrections, in the presence of inhomogeneities, can lead to a deformed constraint algebra. Such a deformation implies that the effective theory is no longer generally covariant. As a consequence, the geometrical…
In Loop Quantum Gravity, tremendous progress has been made using the Ashtekar-Barbero variables. These variables, defined in a gauge-fixing of the theory, correspond to a parametrization of the solutions of the so-called simplicity…
The longstanding issue of general covariance in effective models of quantum gravity is addressed, which arises when canonical quantum gravity leads to a semiclassical model described by an effective Hamiltonian constraint. In the context of…