Related papers: Classical GR as a topological theory with linear c…
We present a new Group Field Theory for 4d quantum gravity. It incorporates the constraints that give gravity from BF theory, and has quantum amplitudes with the explicit form of simplicial path integrals for 1st order gravity. The…
We review the current status and prospects for the conformal invariant fourth order theory of gravity which has recently been advanced by Mannheim and Kazanas as a candidate alternative to the standard second order Einstein theory. We…
In loop quantum gravity we now have a clear picture of the quantum geometry of space, thanks in part to the theory of spin networks. The concept of `spin foam' is intended to serve as a similar picture for the quantum geometry of spacetime.…
We show how Feynman amplitudes of standard QFT on flat and homogeneous space can naturally be recast as the evaluation of observables for a specific spin foam model, which provides dynamics for the background geometry. We identify the…
Topological gravity is the reduction of general relativity to flat space-times. A lattice model describing topological gravity is developed starting from a Hamiltonian lattice version of $B\w F$ theory. The extra symmetries not present in…
The canonical ``loop'' formulation of quantum gravity is a mathematically well defined, background independent, non perturbative standard quantization of Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Some among the most meaningful results of the…
Group field theories are particular quantum field theories defined on D copies of a group which reproduce spin foam amplitudes on a space-time of dimension D. In these lecture notes, we present the general construction of group field…
We propose a new method of unifying gravity and the Standard Model by introducing a spin-foam model. We realize a unification between an SU(2) Yang-Mills interaction and 3D general relativity by considering a Spin(4) Plebanski action. The…
The simplicity constraint is studied in the context of 4d spinfoam models with cosmological constant. We find that the quantum simplicity constraint is realized as the 2d surface defect in SL(2,$\mathbb{C}$) Chern-Simons theory in the…
We consider the application of the consistent lattice quantum gravity approach we introduced recently to the situation of a Friedmann cosmology and also to Bianchi cosmological models. This allows us to work out in detail the computations…
In the quest of a physical theory of quantum gravity, spin foam models, or in short spinfoams, propose a well-defined path integral summing over quantized discrete space-time geometries. At the crossroad of topological quantum field theory,…
We reconsider the spinfoam dynamics that has been recently introduced, in the generalized Kaminski-Kisielowski-Lewandowski (KKL) version where the foam is not dual to a triangulation. We study the Euclidean as well as the Lorentzian case.…
We study a class of theories in which space-time is treated classically, while interacting with quantum fields. These circumvent various no-go theorems and the pathologies of semi-classical gravity, by being linear in the density matrix and…
We construct a topological field theory which, on the one hand, generalizes BF theories in that there is non-trivial coupling to `topological matter fields'; and, on the other, generalizes the three-dimensional model of Carlip and Gegenberg…
Spin foam models, an approach to defining the dynamics of loop quantum gravity, make use of the Plebanski formulation of gravity, in which gravity is recovered from a topological field theory via certain constraints called simplicity…
In Plebanski's self-dual formulation general relativity becomes SO(3) BF theory supplemented with the so-called simplicity (or metricity) constraints for the B-field. The main dynamical equation of the theory states that the curvature of…
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…
The absence of Birkhoff's theorem in effective quantum gravity models leads to a fundamental ambiguity in the vacuum sector, where a priori no unique vacuum solution exists. As a result, phenomenological investigations of the physical…
We consider the cosmological symmetry reduction of the Plebanski action as a toy-model to explore, in this simple framework, some issues related to loop quantum gravity and spin-foam models. We make the classical analysis of the model and…
We consider a certain theory of 3-forms in 7 dimensions, and study its dimensional reduction to 4D, compactifying the 7-dimensional manifold on the 3-sphere of a fixed radius. We show that the resulting 4D theory is General Relativity (GR)…