Related papers: Simplicity in simplicial phase space
We propose a new holonomy formulation for spin foams, which naturally extends the theory space of lattice gauge theories. This allows current spin foam models to be defined on arbitrary two-complexes as well as to generalize current spin…
Current theories of particle physics, including the standard model, are dominated by the paradigm that nature is basically translation invariant. Deviations from translation invariance are described by the action of forces. General…
We investigate a large class of gravity theories that respect spatial covariance, and involve kinetic terms for both the spatial metric and the lapse function. Generally such kind of theories propagate four degrees of freedom, one of which…
This article presents the lattice-smeared gravity phase space reduction defined by the cosmological gauge-fixing conditions. These conditions are specified to reduce the SU(2) symmetry and the spatial diffeomorphism invariance of the 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…
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…
If one replaces the constraints of the Ashtekar-Barbero $SU(2)$ gauge theory formulation of Euclidean gravity by their $U(1)^3$ version, one arrives at a consistent model which captures significant structure of its $SU(2)$ version. In…
In the Hamiltonian formulation, it is not a priori clear whether a symmetric configuration will keep its symmetry during evolution. In this paper, we give precise requirements of when this is the case and propose a symmetry restriction to…
Spin foams are candidate state-sum models for transition amplitudes in quantum gravity. An active research subject is to identify the possible divergences of spin foam models, or alternatively to show that models are finite. We will discuss…
A contradiction arises when applying standard boundary conditions to a simple quantum rotator with a single coordinate. New boundary conditions for the Schroedinger equation are proposed that involve only gauge invariant quantities, and…
This is the third paper in our series of five in which we test the Master Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum Gravity. In this work we analyze models which, despite the fact that the phase space is…
We discuss the notion of causality in Quantum Gravity in the context of sum-over-histories approaches, in the absence therefore of any background time parameter. In the spin foam formulation of Quantum Gravity, we identify the appropriate…
We have treated numerous illustrative examples of spin relaxation problems using Wigner's phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics of particles and spins. The merit of the phase space formalism as applied to spin relaxation problems is…
Motivated by group-theoretical questions that arise in the context of asymptotic symmetries in gravity, we study model spaces and their quantization from the viewpoint of constrained Hamiltonian systems. More precisely, we propose that a…
In the canonical quantization of gravity in terms of the Ashtekar variables one uses paths in the 3-space to construct the quantum states. Usually, one restricts oneself to families of paths admitting only finite number of isolated…
Starting from the reformulation of the classical phase space of Loop Quantum Gravity in terms of spinor variables and spinor networks, we build coherent spin network states and show how to use them to write the spinfoam path integral for…
The spin foam framework provides a way to define the dynamics of canonical loop quantum gravity in a spacetime covariant way, by using a path integral over histories of quantum states which can be interpreted as `quantum space-times'. This…
On the path towards quantum gravity, we find friction between temporal relations in quantum mechanics (QM) (where they are fixed and field-independent), and in general relativity (where they are field-dependent and dynamic). This paper aims…
In its canonical formulation, general relativity is subject to gauge transformations that are equivalent to space-time coordinate changes of general covariance only when the gauge generators, given by the Hamiltonian and diffeomorphism…
We introduce a master constraint operator on the kinematical Hilbert space of loop quantum gravity representing a set of gauge conditions which classically fix the densitized triad to be diagonal. We argue that the master constraint…