Related papers: Spin-Foam Models and the Physical Scalar Product
The study of toy models in loop quantum gravity (LQG), defined as truncations of the full theory, is relevant to both the development of the LQG phenomenology, in cosmology and astrophysics, and the progress towards the resolution of the…
These notes are a didactic overview of the non perturbative and background independent approach to a quantum theory of gravity known as loop quantum gravity. The definition of real connection variables for general relativity, used as a…
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 this paper we reconsider the implementation of the…
The relation between Loop Quantum Gravity and Regge calculus has been pointed out many times in the literature. In particular the large spin asymptotics of the Barrett-Crane vertex amplitude is known to be related to the Regge action. In…
We present a spin foam formulation of Lorentzian quantum General Relativity. The theory is based on a simple generalization of an Euclidean model defined in terms of a field theory over a group. Its vertex amplitude turns out to be the one…
We derive simplicity constraints for the quantization of general Lorentzian 4-geometries. Our method is based on the correspondence between coherent states and classical bivectors and the minimization of associated uncertainties. For…
Spin foam models are an attempt for a covariant, or path integral formulation of canonical loop quantum gravity. The construction of such models usually rely on the Plebanski formulation of general relativity as a constrained BF theory and…
An approximate model of the spacetime foam is offered in which each quantum handle (wormhole) is a 5D wormhole-like solution. A spinor field is introduced for an effective description of this foam. The topological handles of the spacetime…
The attempt of extending to higher dimensions the matrix model formulation of two-dimensional quantum gravity leads to the consideration of higher rank tensor models. We discuss how these models relate to four dimensional quantum gravity…
We review the relation between Loop Quantum Gravity on a fixed graph and discrete models of gravity. We compare Regge and twisted geometries, and discuss discrete actions based on twisted geometries and on the discretization of the…
The spectral dimension has proven to be a very informative observable to understand the properties of quantum geometries in approaches to quantum gravity. In loop quantum gravity and its spin foam description, it has not been possible so…
The Randall-Sundrum scenario with non-factorizable geometry and fifth dimension y being an orbifold, is studied. It has two branes located at fixed points of the orbifold. The four-dimensional metric is multiplied by a warp factor…
We give a brief and a critical review of the Barret-Crane spin foam models of quantum gravity. Then we describe two new spin foam models which are obtained by direct quantization of General Relativity and do not have some of the drawbacks…
Calculations in Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) and spin-foams theory rely heavily on group theory of SU(2) and SL(2,C). Even though many monographs exist devoted to this theory, the different tools needed (e.g. representation theory, harmonic…
This paper is twofold. First of all a complete unified picture of $n$-dimensional quantum gravity is proposed in the following sense: In spin foam models of quantum gravity the evaluation of spin networks play a very important role. These…
We provide the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for quantum gravity with a discrete action principle, consisting in the usual BF term with discretized simplicity constraints which in the continuum turn topological BF theory into gravity. The…
A new functional calculus, developed recently for a fully non-perturbative treatment of quantum gravity, is used to begin a systematic construction of a quantum theory of geometry. Regulated operators corresponding to areas of 2-surfaces…
In the past, the possibility to employ (scalar) material reference systems in order to describe classical and quantum gravity directly in terms of gauge invariant (Dirac) observables has been emphasised frequently. This idea has been picked…
We extend the formalism of embedded spin networks and spin foams to include topological data that encode the underlying three-manifold or four-manifold as a branched cover. These data are expressed as monodromies, in a way similar to the…
We perform a quantization of the loop gravity phase space purely in terms of spinorial variables, which have recently been shown to provide a direct link between spin network states and simplicial geometries. The natural Hilbert space to…