Related papers: Spin-Foam Models and the Physical Scalar Product
I discuss the use of spinors in the construction of spin-foam models, in particular the form of the closure and simplicity constraints for triangles that are space-like, i.e. with (area)$^2=\half S^{IJ}S_{IJ}>0$, regardless of whether they…
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 a seminal paper, Kaminski, Kisielowski an Lewandowski for the first time extended the definition of spin foam models to arbitrary boundary graphs. This is a prerequisite in order to make contact to the canonical formulation of Loop…
Any approach to pure quantum gravity must eventually face the question of coupling quantum matter to the theory. In the past, several ways of coupling matter to spin foam quantum gravity have been proposed, but the dynamics of the coupled…
A covariant spin-foam formulation of quantum gravity has been recently developed, characterized by a kinematics which appears to match well the one of canonical loop quantum gravity. In particular, the geometrical observable giving the area…
In this article we review the present status of the spin foam formulation of non-perturbative (background independent) quantum gravity. The article is divided in two parts. In the first part we present a general introduction to the main…
Spin foam models, loop quantum gravity and group field theory are discussed as quantum gravity candidate theories and usually involve a continuous Lie group. We advocate here to consider quantum gravity inspired models with finite groups,…
We show that the Euclidean and Lorentzian EPRL vertex amplitudes of covariant Loop Quantum Gravity are related through a ``Wick rotation'' of the real Immirzi parameter to purely imaginary values. Our result follows from the simultaneous…
We introduce a vertex amplitude for 4d loop quantum gravity. We derive it from a conventional quantization of a Regge discretization of euclidean general relativity. This yields a spinfoam sum that corrects some difficulties of the…
We summarize the basics of the loop representation of quantum gravity and describe the main aspects of the formalism, including its latest developments, in a reorganized and consistent form. Recoupling theory, in its graphical…
The goal of spin foam models is to provide a viable path integral formulation of quantum gravity. Because of background independence, their underlying framework has certain novel features that are not shared by path integral formulations of…
We give a general definition of spin foam models, and then of models of 4d quantum gravity based on constraining BF theory. We highlight the construction and quantization ambiguities entering model building, among which the choice of…
The Spin Foam approach to quantum gravity aims at providing a covariant path-integral formulation of canonical Loop Quantum Gravity. Since spin foam amplitudes are defined through discretisations of spacetime, understanding the continuum…
We analyse the classical and quantum geometry of the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for four dimensional quantum gravity, explaining why it has to be considering as a covariant realization of the projector operator onto physical quantum…
A model aimed at understanding quantum gravity in terms of Birkhoff's approach is discussed. The geometry of this model is constructed by using a winding map of Minkowski space into a $\mathbb{R}^{3} \times S^{1}$-cylinder. The basic field…
In this work we study a Spin Foam model for 4d Riemannian gravity, and propose a new way of imposing the simplicity constraints that uses the recently developed holomorphic representation. Using the power of the holomorphic integration…
Loop Quantum Gravity is now a well established approach to quantum gravity. One of the main challenges still faced by the theory is constructing a consistent dynamics which would lead back to the standard dynamics of the gravitational field…
Spin Foam Models (SFMs) are covariant formulations of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) in 4 dimensions. This work studies the perturbations of SFMs on a flat background. It demonstrates for the first time that smooth curved spacetime geometries…
Spin foam models are an approach to quantum gravity based on the concept of sum over states, which aims to describe quantum spacetime dynamics in a way that its parent framework, loop quantum gravity, has not as of yet succeeded. Since…