Related papers: Curvature in spinfoams
Lorentzian quantum gravity is believed to cure the pathologies encountered in Euclidean quantum gravity, such as the conformal factor problem. We show that this is the case for the Lorentzian Regge path integral expanded around a flat…
Over the last two years, the canonical approach to quantum gravity based on connections and triads has been put on a firm mathematical footing through the development and application of a new functional calculus on the space of gauge…
Recursion relations for integrals of amplitudes over the phase space, i.e. for partial wave amplitudes, are introduced. In their simplest form these integrals are proportional to the s-wave amplitudes and represent rigorous lower bounds on…
The amplitude for the 4-simplex in a spin foam model for quantum gravity is defined using a graphical calculus for the unitary representations of the Lorentz group. The asymptotics of this amplitude are studied in the limit when the…
Recent attempts to recover the graviton propagator from spin foam models involve the use of a boundary quantum state peaked on a classical geometry. The question arises whether beyond the case of a single simplex this suffices for peaking…
We analyze scattering amplitudes with one soft external graviton and arbitrary number of other finite energy external states carrying arbitrary mass and spin to sub-subleading order in the momentum of the soft graviton. Our result can be…
The path-integral approach to cosmology consists in the computation of transition amplitudes between states of the quantum geometry of the universe. In the past, the concrete computation of these transitions amplitudes has been performed in…
We present the first numerical calculation of the 4D Euclidean spin foam vertex amplitude for vertices with hypercubic combinatorics. Concretely, we compute the amplitude for coherent boundary data peaked on cuboid and frustum shapes. We…
A classical particle under spatial constraints is strictly confined to live on a specific space manifold or path, but this assumption is incompatible with the zero-point fluctuations of a quantum particle. One way to describe quantum…
General relativity successfully describes space-times at scales that we can observe and probe today, but it cannot be complete as a consequence of singularity theorems. For a long time there have been indications that quantum gravity will…
A general geometrical scheme is presented for the construction of novel classical gravity theories whose solutions obey two-sided bounds on the sectional curvatures along certain subvarieties of the Grassmannian of two-planes. The…
Loop quantum gravity envisions a small scale structure of spacetime that is markedly different from that of the classical spacetime continuum. This has ramifications for the excitation of matter fields and for their coupling to gravity.…
The universality of semiclassical gravity is investigated by considering the behavior of the quantities < \phi^2 > and < {T^a}_b >, along with quantum corrections to the effective Newtonian potential in the far field limits of static…
We argue that recent developments in discretizations of classical and quantum gravity imply a new paradigm for doing research in these areas. The paradigm consists in discretizing the theory in such a way that the resulting discrete theory…
The construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity is a problem in theoretical physics that has so far defied all attempts at resolution. One ansatz to try to obtain a non-trivial quantum theory proceeds via a discretization of…
We show that General Relativity can be formulated as a constrained topological theory for flat 2-connections associated to the Poincar\'e 2-group. Matter can be consistently coupled to gravity in this formulation. We also show that the edge…
Quantum gravity has been so elusive because we have tried to approach it by two paths which can never meet: quantum mechanics and general relativity. These contradict each other not only in superdense regimes, but also in the vacuum. We…
We consider the quantum-mechanical decay of a Schwarzschild-like black hole formed by gravitational collapse into almost-flat space-time and weak radiation at a late time. We evaluate quantum amplitudes (not just probabilities) for…
This thesis is developed in the context of the spin-foam approach to quantum gravity; all results are concerned with the Lorentzian theory and with semiclassical methods. A correspondence is given between Majorana 2-spinors and time-like…
We study quantum and classical systems associated with the quantum corner symmetry group $\mathrm{QCS}=\widetilde{\mathrm{SL}}(2,\mathbb{R})\ltimes \mathrm{H}_3,$ which arises in the context of quantum gravity. We relate quantum observables…