Related papers: On the volume simplicity constraint in the EPRL sp…

We investigate the performance of the finite volume method in solving viscoplastic flows. The creeping square lid-driven cavity flow of a Bingham plastic is chosen as the test case and the constitutive equation is regularised as proposed by…

We consider the EPRL spin foam amplitude for arbitrary embedded two-complexes. Choosing a definition of the face- and edge amplitudes which lead to spin foam amplitudes invariant under trivial subdivisions, we investigate invariance…

Spin-foam models are hoped to provide a dynamics for loop quantum gravity. These start from the Plebanski formulation of gravity, in which gravity is obtained from a topological field theory, BF theory, through constraints, which, however,…

We calculate the Seiberg-Witten invariants of branched covers of prime degree, where the branch locus consists of embedded spheres. Aside from the formula itself, our calculations give rise to some new constraints on configurations of…

We construct an explicit lower bound for the volume of a complex hyperbolic orbifold that depends only on dimension.

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…

An idea of reality conditions in the context of spin foams (Barrett-Crane models) is developed. The square of areas are the most elementary observables in the case of spin foams. This observation implies that simplest reality conditions in…

We present an improved formulation of 4-dimensional Lorentzian spinfoam quantum gravity with cosmological constant. The construction of spinfoam amplitudes uses the state-integral model of PSL(2,$\mathbb{C}$) Chern-Simons theory and the…

For closed and oriented hyperbolic surfaces, a formula of Witten establishes an equality between two volume forms on the space of representations of the surface in a semisimple Lie group. One of the forms is a Reidemeister torsion, the…

Let N be a manifold (with boundary) of dimension at least 3, such that its interior admits a hyperbolic metric of finite volume. We discuss the possible limits arising from sequences of relative fundamental cycles approximating the…

Let M be a hyperbolic n-manifold whose cusps have torus cross-sections. In arXiv:0901.0056, the authors constructed a variety of nonpositively and negatively curved spaces as "2\pi-fillings" of M by replacing the cusps of M with compact…

In this paper we generalize the main result of [4] for manifolds that are not necessarily Einstein. In fact, we obtain an upper bound for the volume of a locally volume-minimizing closed hypersurface $\Sigma$ of a Riemannian 5-manifold $M$…

We give a method for computing upper and lower bounds for the volume of a non-obtuse hyperbolic polyhedron in terms of the combinatorics of the 1-skeleton. We introduce an algorithm that detects the geometric decomposition of good…

A classic theorem of Kazhdan and Margulis states that for any semisimple Lie group without compact factors, there is a positive lower bound on the covolume of lattices. H. C. Wang's subsequent quantitative analysis showed that the…

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…

We analyze two models of random geometries~: planar hyper-cubic random surfaces and four dimensional simplicial quantum gravity. We show for the hyper-cubic random surface model that a geometrical constraint does not change the critical…

Spin foam models for gravity or BF theory can be constructed by path integral formulation of the classical discrete models formulated on simplicial manifolds. Using this, we discuss the rigorous construction of Lorentzian spin foam models…

A covariant spin-foam formulation of quantum gravity has been recently developed, characterized by a kinematics which appears to match well the one of canonical loop quantum gravity. In particular, the geometrical observable giving the area…

We prove that if the associated fourth order tensor of a quadratic form has a linear elastic cubic symmetry then it is quasiconvex if and only if it is polyconvex, i.e. a sum of convex and null-Lagrangian quadratic forms. We prove that…

We prove Fourier restriction estimates by means of the polynomial partitioning method for compact subsets of any sufficiently smooth hyperbolic hypersurface in threedimensional euclidean space. Our approach exploits in a crucial way the…