Related papers: Degenerate Plebanski Sector and Spin Foam Quantiza…
I discuss the use of spinors in the construction of spin-foam models, in particular the form of the closure and simplicity constraints for triangles that are space-like, i.e. with (area)$^2=\half S^{IJ}S_{IJ}>0$, regardless of whether they…
We study a family of (possibly non topological) deformations of $BF$ theory for the Lie algebra obtained by quadratic extension of $\mathfrak{so}(3,1)$ by an orthogonal module. The resulting theory, called quadratically extended General…
We present a spin foam model in which the fundamental ``bubble amplitudes'' (the analog of the one-loop corrections in quantum field theory) are finite as the cutoff is removed. The model is a natural variant of the field theoretical…
We analyse the classical and quantum geometry of the Barrett-Crane spin foam model for four dimensional quantum gravity, explaining why it has to be considering as a covariant realization of the projector operator onto physical quantum…
We discuss various features and details of two versions of the Barrett-Crane spin foam model of quantum gravity, first of the Spin(4)-symmetric Riemannian model and second of the SL(2,C)-symmetric Lorentzian version in which all tetrahedra…
It is argued that ultracold quantum degenerate gas of ytterbium $^{173}$Yb atoms having nuclear spin $I = 5/2$ exhibits an enlarged SU$(6)$ symmetry. Within the Landau Fermi liquid theory, stability criteria against Fermi liquid…
We study the semi-classical limit of the recently proposed coherent spin foam model for (2+1) Lorentzian quantum gravity. Specifically, we analyze the gluing equations derived from the stationary phase approximation of the vertex amplitude.…
We propose an explicit spin-foam amplitude for Lorentzian gravity in three dimensions, allowing for both space- and time-like boundaries. The model is based on two main requirements: that it should be structurally similar to its well-known…
Effect of quantum fluctuations concerned with the orbital degrees of freedom is discussed for the model with SU(4) symmetry in one dimension. An effective Hamiltonian is derived from the orbitally degenerate Hubbard model at quarter…
In four-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) the SU(3) sub-sector spanned by purely holomorphic fields is isomorphic to the corresponding mixed one spanned by both holomorphic and antiholomorphic fields. This is no longer the case when…
The Svetitsky-Yaffe conjecture for finite temperature 4d SU(2) lattice gauge theory is confirmed by observing matching of block spin effective actions of the gauge model with those of the 3d Ising model. The effective action for the gauge…
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…
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…
We present a theory of four-dimensional quantum gravity with massive gravitons which may be essentially renormalizable. In the Plebanski formulation of General Relativity (GR), in which the tetrads, the connection and the curvature are all…
We review E$_{6(6)}$ exceptional field theory with a particular emphasis on the embedding of type IIB supergravity, which is obtained by picking the GL$(5)\times {\rm SL}(2)$ invariant solution of the section constraint. We work out the…
Making the Lorentzian path integral for quantum gravity well-defined and computable has been a long standing challenge. In this work we adopt the recently proposed effective spin foam models to the Lorentzian case. This defines a path…
We construct a family of integrable vertex model based on the typical four-dimensional representations of the quantum group deformation of the Lie superalgebra $sl(2|1)$. Upon alternation of such a representation with its dual this model…
Besides the String Theory context, the quantum General Relativity can be studied by the use of constrained topological field theories. In the celebrated Plebanski formalism, the constraints connecting topological field theories and gravity…
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 show that there is a sector of quantum general relativity which may be expressed in a completely holographic formulation in terms of states and operators defined on a finite boundary. The space of boundary states is built out of the…