Related papers: Scalar curvature for metric spaces: Defining curva…
Motivated by the search for geometric observables in nonperturbative quantum gravity, we define a notion of coarse-grained Ricci curvature. It is based on a particular way of extracting the local Ricci curvature of a smooth Riemannian…
Quantum Ricci curvature has been introduced recently as a new, geometric observable characterizing the curvature properties of metric spaces, without the need for a smooth structure. Besides coordinate invariance, its key features are…
Curvature is a key notion in General Relativity, characterizing the local physical properties of spacetime. By contrast, the concept of curvature has received scant attention in nonperturbative quantum gravity. One may even wonder whether…
Building on the recently introduced notion of quantum Ricci curvature and motivated by considerations in nonperturbative quantum gravity, we advocate a new, global observable for curved metric spaces, the curvature profile. It is obtained…
Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) is a methodology to define and compute the gravitational path integral, whose aim is a fully fledged nonperturbative quantum field theory of gravity and spacetime. Analogous to lattice formulations of…
This thesis investigates low-dimensional models of nonperturbative quantum gravity, with a special focus on Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT). We define the so-called curvature profile, a new quantum gravitational observable based on…
Flatness -- the absence of spacetime curvature -- is a well-understood property of macroscopic, classical spacetimes in general relativity. The same cannot be said about the concepts of curvature and flatness in nonperturbative quantum…
We study the relationship between discrete analogues of Ricci and scalar curvature that are defined for point clouds and graphs. In the discrete setting, Ricci curvature is replaced by Ollivier-Ricci curvature. Scalar curvature can be…
We give a brief non-technical introduction to non-regular spacetime geometry. In particular, we discuss how curvature, and hence gravity, can be defined without a smooth (differential geometric) calculus.
Lattice formulations of gravity can be used to study non-perturbative aspects of quantum gravity. Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) is a lattice model of gravity that has been used in this way. It has a built-in time foliation but is…
We introduce the linear connection in the noncommutative geometry model of the product of continuous manifold and the discrete space of two points. We discuss its metric properties, define the metric connection and calculate the curvature.…
In this article we introduce a new operator representing the three-dimensional scalar curvature in loop quantum gravity. Our construction does not apply to the entire kinematical Hilbert space of loop quantum gravity; instead, the operator…
The problem of defining correctly geometric objects such as the curvature is a hard one in discrete geometry. In 2009, Ollivier defined a notion of curvature applicable to a wide category of measured metric spaces, in particular to graphs.…
An outstanding challenge for models of non-perturbative quantum gravity is the consistent formulation and quantitative evaluation of physical phenomena in a regime where geometry and matter are strongly coupled. After developing appropriate…
We re-examine the nonperturbative curvature properties of two-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity, obtained as the scaling limit of a path integral over dynamical triangulations of a two-sphere, which lies in the same universality class…
The aim of the paper is to extend the notion of $\alpha$-geometry in the classical and in the noncommutative case by introducing a more general class of pull-back metrics and to give concrete formulas for the scalar curvature of these…
We give a metric characterization of the scalar curvature of a smooth Riemannian manifold, analyzing the maximal distance between $(n+1)$ points in infinitesimally small neighborhoods of a point. Since this characterization is purely in…
We investigate the quantum Ricci curvature, which was introduced in earlier work, in full, four-dimensional quantum gravity, formulated nonperturbatively in terms of Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT). A key finding of the CDT approach…
A typical geometry extracted from the path integral of a quantum theory of gravity might be quite complicated in the UV region. Even if such a configuration is not physical, it may be of interest to understand the details of its nature,…
In the context of mathematical cosmology, the study of necessary and sufficient conditions for a semi-Riemannian manifold to be a (generalised) Robertson-Walker space-time is important. In particular, it is a requirement for the development…