Related papers: Evolution of Universes in Causal Set Cosmology
The dynamics of cosmological gravitating system is governed by the Euler and the Poisson equations. Tiny fluctuations near the big bang singularity are amplified by gravitational instability into the observed structure today. Given the…
General Relativity traces the evolution of our Universe back to a Big Bang singularity. To probe physics before the singularity -- if indeed there is a ``before'' -- we must turn to quantum gravity. The Causal Set approach to quantum…
In the causal set approach to quantum gravity the spacetime continuum arises as an approximation to a fundamentally discrete substructure, the causal set, which is a locally finite partially ordered set. The causal set paradigm was…
The occurrence of singularities where spacetime curvature becomes infinite and geodesic evolution breaks down are inevitable events in classical general relativity (GR) unless one chooses an exotic matter violating weak energy condition.…
Alternative scenarios to the Big Bang singularity have been subject of intense research for several decades by now. Most popular in this sense have been frameworks were such singularity is replaced by a bounce around some minimal…
An important question that discrete approaches to quantum gravity must address is how continuum features of spacetime can be recovered from the discrete substructure. Here, we examine this question within the causal set approach to quantum…
A new approach to quantum gravity is described which joins the loop representation formulation of the canonical theory to the causal set formulation of the path integral. The theory assigns quantum amplitudes to special classes of causal…
The ideas of spacetime discreteness and causality are important in several of the popular approaches to quantum gravity. But if discreteness is accepted as an initial assumption, conflict with Lorentz invariance can be a consequence. The…
Although the current galaxy models yield calculations consistent with much of the data, many irregularities exist, exceptions have been found to the current models, the $\Lambda$CDM model apparently fails on galaxy scales, dark matter…
We discuss Cosmic Microwave Background constraints on the causal set theory of quantum gravity, which has made testable predictions about the nature of dark energy. We flesh out previously discussed heuristic constraints by showing how the…
In the approach of Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT), quantum gravity is obtained as a scaling limit of a non-perturbative path integral over space-times whose causal structure plays a crucial role in the construction. After some…
The ekpyrotic and cyclic universe scenarios have revived the idea that the density perturbations apparent in today's universe could have been generated in a `pre-singularity' epoch before the big bang. These scenarios provide explicit…
This article begins by reviewing the causal set approach in discrete quantum gravity. In our version of this approach a special role is played by covariant causal sets which we call $c$-causets. The importance of $c$-causets is that they…
We explicitly compute the causal structure of the Schwarzschild black hole spacetime, by providing an algorithm to decide if any pair of events is causally related. The primary motivation for this study comes from discrete quantum gravity,…
A scalar-tensor theory of gravity is formulated in which $G$ and particle masses are allowed to vary. The theory yields a globally static cosmological model with no evolutionary timescales, no cosmological coincidences, and no flatness and…
The Causal Set Theory (CST) approach to quantum gravity is motivated by the observation that, associated with any causal spacetime (M,g) is a poset (M,<), with the order relation < corresponding to the spacetime causal relation. Spacetime…
In this paper we discuss a cosmological model for a universe with self-regulating features. We set up the theoretical framework for the model and determine the time evolution of the scale-factor $a(t)$. It is shown that such a universe…
We review recent efforts to construct gravitational theories on discrete space-times, usually referred to as the ``consistent discretization'' approach. The resulting theories are free of constraints at the canonical level and therefore…
We study a collection of discrete Markov chains related to the causal set approach to modeling discrete theories of quantum gravity. The transition probabilities of these chains satisfy a general covariance principle, a causality principle,…
Quantum gravity is expected to be necessary in order to understand situations where classical general relativity breaks down. In particular in cosmology one has to deal with initial singularities, i.e. the fact that the backward evolution…