Related papers: 2-Group Representations for Spin Foams

It has long been argued that higher categories provide the proper algebraic structure underlying state sum invariants of 4-manifolds. This idea has been refined recently, by proposing to use 2-groups and their representations as specific…

This is intended as a self-contained introduction to the representation theory developed in order to create a Poincare 2-category state sum model for Quantum Gravity in 4 dimensions. We review the structure of a new representation…

We present the construction of a new state sum model for $4d$ Lorentzian quantum gravity based on the description of quantum simplicial geometry in terms of edge vectors. Quantum states and amplitudes for simplicial geometry are built from…

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 describe a class of spin foam models of four-dimensional quantum gravity which is based on the integration of the tetrad one-forms in the path integral for the Palatini action of General Relativity. In the Euclidian gravity case this…

We construct a class of spin foam models describing matter coupled to gravity, such that the gravitational sector is described by the unitary irreducible representations of the appropriate symmetry group, while the matter sector is…

In this thesis I review the definition of topological quantum field theories through state sums on triangulated manifolds. I describe the construction of state sum invariants of 3-manifolds from a graphical calculus and show how to evaluate…

Group field theories are quantum field theories built on groups. They can be seen as a tool to generate topological state-sums or quantum gravity models. For four dimensional manifolds, different arguments have pointed towards 2-groups…

We consider quantum transition amplitudes, partition functions and observables for 3D spin foam models within $SU(2)$ quantum group deformation symmetry, where the deformation parameter is a complex fifth root of unity. By considering…

We study the state-sum models of quantum gravity based on a representation 2-category of the Poincare 2-group. We call them spin-cube models, since they are categorical generalizations of spin-foam models. A spin-cube state sum can be…

A Kaluza-Klein like approach for a 4d spin foam model is considered. By applying this approach to a model based on group field theory in 4d (TOCY model), and using the Peter-Weyl expansion of the gravitational field, reconstruction of new…

It has been recently shown that a certain non-topological spin foam model can be obtained from the Feynman expansion of a field theory over a group. The field theory defines a natural ``sum over triangulations'', which removes the cut off…

We investigate the group field theory formulation of the EPRL/FK spin foam models. These models aim at a dynamical, i.e. non-topological formulation of 4D quantum gravity. We introduce a saddle point method for general group field theory…

We provide a simple proof of the topological invariance of the Turaev-Viro model (corresponding to simplicial 3d pure Euclidean gravity with cosmological constant) by means of a novel diagrammatic formulation of the state sum models for…

There is a unique finite group that lies inside the 2-dimensional unitary group but not in the special unitary group, and maps by the symmetric square to an irreducible subgroup of the 3-dimensional real special orthogonal group. In an…

Loop quantum gravity has provided us with a canonical framework especially devised for background independent and diffeomorphism invariant gauge field theories. In this quantization the fundamental excitations are called spin network…

We describe how a spin-foam state sum model can be reformulated as a quantum field theory of spin networks, such that the Feynman diagrams of that field theory are the spin-foam amplitudes. In the case of open spin networks, we obtain a new…

Boulatov and Ooguri have generalized the matrix models of 2d quantum gravity to 3d and 4d, in the form of field theories over group manifolds. We show that the Barrett-Crane quantum gravity model arises naturally from a theory of this type,…

We construct the spin foam model for N=2 supergravity in three dimensions. Classically, it is a BF theory with gauge algebra osp(2|2). This algebra has representations which are not completely reducible. This complicates the procedure when…

We present a new group field theory describing 3d Riemannian quantum gravity coupled to matter fields for any choice of spin and mass. The perturbative expansion of the partition function produces fat graphs colored with SU(2) algebraic…