Related papers: Spinfoams: Foundations
We describe a completely general and fully non-perturbative framework for constructing dynamical reference frames in generally covariant theories, and for understanding the gauge-invariant observables that they yield. Our approach makes use…
We study the cosmological implications of gravity models which break diffeomorphisms (Diff) invariance down to transverse diffeomorphisms (TDiff). We start from the most general gravitational action involving up to quadratic terms in…
Over the past five years, there has been significant progress on the problem of quantization of diffeomorphism covariant field theories with {\it local} degrees of freedom. The absence of a background space-time metric in these theories…
I describe a possible perspective on the current state of loop quantum gravity, at the light of the developments of the last years. I point out that a theory is now available, having a well-defined background-independent kinematics and a…
We examine the four dimensional path integral for Euclidean quantum gravity in the context of the EPRL-FK spin foam model. The state sum is restricted to certain symmetric configurations which resembles the geometry of a flat homogeneous…
In this work we introduce a criterion for testing general covariance in effective quantum gravity theories. It adapts the analysis of invariance under general spacetime diffeomorphisms of the Einstein-Hilbert action to the case of effective…
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 give a general definition of spin foam models, and then of models of 4d quantum gravity based on constraining BF theory. We highlight the construction and quantization ambiguities entering model building, among which the choice of…
After short historical overview we describe the difficulties with application of standard QFT methods in quantum gravity (QG). The incompatibility of QG with the use of classical continuous space-time required conceptually new approach. We…
We study two-dimensional quantum gravity on arbitrary genus Riemann surfaces in the Kaehler formalism where the basic quantum field is the (Laplacian of the) Kaehler potential. We do a careful first-principles computation of the fixed-area…
The metric field of general relativity is almost fully determined by its causal structure. Yet, in spin-foam models for quantum gravity, the role played by the causal structure is still largely unexplored. The goal of this paper is to…
We consider an ``integral'' extension of the classical notion of affine connection providing a correspondence between paths in the manifold and diffeomorphisms of the manifold. These path-diffeomorphisms are a generalization of parallel…
Loop quantum cosmology is a symmetry reduced quantization of cosmological spacetimes based on loop quantum gravity. While it has been successful in resolution of various cosmological singularities and connecting Planck scale physics to…
In perturbative QED, the approximation is improved by summing more Feynman graphs; in non-perturbative QCD, by refining the lattice. Here we observe that in quantum gravity the two procedures may well be the same. We outline the…
In the model of a fermion field coupled to loop quantum gravity, we consider the Gauss and the Hamiltonian constraints. According to the explicit solutions to the Gauss constraint, the fermion spins and the gravitational spin networks…
In this article we give a systematic definition of the recently introduced spin foam models for four dimensional quantum gravity reviewing the main results on their semiclassical limit on fixed discretizations.
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 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 representation theory of non-centrally extended Lie algebras of Noether symmetries, including spacetime diffeomorphisms and reparametrizations of the observer's trajectory, has recently been developped. It naturally solves some…
We describe the basic assumptions and key results of loop quantum gravity, which is a background independent approach to quantum gravity. The emphasis is on the basic physical principles and how one deduces predictions from them, at a level…