Related papers: Cosmological measurements, time and observables in…
We consider an observer in a (2+1)-spacetime without matter and cosmological constant who measures spacetime geometry by emitting lightrays which return to him at a later time. We investigate several quantities associated with such…
We review the geometrical properties of vacuum spacetimes in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant. We explain how these spacetimes are characterised as quotients of their universal cover by holonomies. We explain how this…
We show how an observer could measure the non-local holonomy variables that parametrise the flat Lorentzian 3d manifolds arising as spacetimes in (2+1)-gravity. We consider an observer who emits lightrays that return to him at a later time…
Inspired by previous work in 2+1 dimensional quantum gravity, which found evidence for a discretization of time in the quantum theory, we reexamine the issue for the case of pure Lorentzian gravity with vanishing cosmological constant and…
It is commonly accepted that the study of 2+1 dimensional quantum gravity could teach us something about the 3+1 dimensional case. The non-perturbative methods developed in this case share, as basic ingredient, a reformulation of gravity as…
This paper is a review of the relationship between the metric formulation of (2+1)-dimensional gravity and the loop observables of Rovelli and Smolin. I emphasize the possibility of reconstructing the geometry, via the theory of geometric…
Theorists are often told to express things in the "observational plane". One can do this for space-time geometry, considering "visual" observations of matter in our universe by a single observer over time, with no assumptions about…
A general classical theorem is presented according to which all invariant relations among the space time metric scalars, when turned into functions on the Phase Space of full Pure Gravity (using the Canonical Equations of motion), become…
We introduce observables associated with the space-time position of a quantum point defined by the intersection of two light pulses. The time observable is canonically conjugated to the energy. Conformal symmetry of massless quantum fields…
We relate the geometrical and the Chern-Simons description of (2+1)-dimensional gravity for spacetimes of topology $R\times S_g$, where $S_g$ is an oriented two-surface of genus $g>1$, for Lorentzian signature and general cosmological…
In this conceptual paper we construct a local version of Shape Dynamics that is equivalent to General Relativity in the sense that the algebras of Dirac observables weakly coincide. This allows us to identify Shape Dynamics observables with…
A class of diffeomorphism invariant, physical observables, so-called astrometric observables, is introduced. A particularly simple example, the time delay, which expresses the difference between two initially synchronized proper time clocks…
The description of an observer's measurement in general relativity and the standard model of particle physics is closely related to the spacetime metric. In order to understand and interpret measurements, which test the metric structure of…
We present a way of understanding the curvature of space-time, the basic philosophy being that the (linear) geometry of any space is determined by the (linear) functionals on the algebra(s) of any fields defined on the space. It is known…
A cosmological time variable is emerged from the hamiltonian formulation of unimodular theory of gravity to measure the evolution of dynamical observables in the theory. A set of constants of motion has been identified for the theory on the…
The relativistic conception of space and time is challenged by the quantum nature of physical observables. It has been known for a long time that Poincar\'e symmetry of field theory can be extended to the larger conformal symmetry. We use…
In a companion paper we studied field theory in the presence of a physical observer with quantum dynamics. Here we describe the most striking consequence of this assumption: new gauge and diff anomalies arise. The relevant cocycles depend…
The relativity of cosmic time is developed within the framework of Cosmological Relativity in five dimensions of space, time and velocity. A general linearized metric element is defined to have the form $ds^2 = (1+\phi) c^2 dt^2 - dr^2 +…
We provide a setup by which one can recover the geometry of spacetime from local measurements of quantum particle detectors coupled to a quantum field. Concretely, we show how one can recover the field's correlation function from…
We consider spacetime to be a 4-dimensional differentiable manifold that can be split locally into time and space. No metric, no linear connection are assumed. Matter is described by classical fields/fluids. We distinguish electrically…