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A spin-foam model is derived from the canonical model of Loop Quantum Gravity coupled to a massless scalar field. We generalized to the full theory the scheme first proposed in the context of Loop Quantum Cosmology by Ashtekar, Campiglia…
We present a spin foam formulation of Lorentzian quantum General Relativity. The theory is based on a simple generalization of an Euclidean model defined in terms of a field theory over a group. Its vertex amplitude turns out to be the one…
Lattice Gauge Theory in 4-dimensional Euclidean space-time is generalized to ribbon categories which replace the category of representations of the gauge group. This provides a framework in which the gauge group becomes a quantum group…
The transfer matrix in lattice field theory connects the covariant and the initial data frameworks; in spin foam models, it can be written as a composition of elementary cellular amplitudes/propagators. We present a framework for discrete…
The most common spin foam models of gravity are widely believed to be discrete path integral quantizations of the Plebanski action. However, their derivation in present formulations is incomplete and lower dimensional simplex amplitudes are…
We present some modern theories on the structure of spacetime that can be classified as relational theories in the direction of Leibniz's ontology. In order to analyze the nature of spacetime we consider three levels of knowledge…
Spin foam models of quantum gravity are based on Plebanski's formulation of general relativity as a constrained BF theory. We give an alternative formulation of gravity as BF theory plus a certain potential term for the B-field. When the…
The problem of constructing a quantum theory of gravity has been tackled with very different strategies, most of which relying on the interplay between ideas from physics and from advanced mathematics. On the mathematical side, a central…
In these notes, the application of Feynman's sum-over-paths approach to thermal phase transitions is discussed. The paradigm of such a spacetime approach to critical phenomena is provided by the high-temperature expansion of spin models.…
In this article we lay foundations for a formal relationship of spin foam models of gravity and BF theory to their continuum canonical formulations. First the derivation of the spin foam model of the BF theory from the discrete BF theory…
We construct a canonical formulation of general relativity for the case of a timelike foliation of spacetime. The formulation possesses explicit covariance with respect to Lorentz transformations in the tangent space. Applying the loop…
We propose a spin foam model for pure gauge fields coupled to Riemannian quantum gravity in four dimensions. The model is formulated for the triangulation of a four-manifold which is given merely combinatorially. The Riemannian…
We link the notion causality with the orientation of the 2-complex on which spin foam models are based. We show that all current spin foam models are orientation-independent, pointing out the mathematical structure behind this independence.…
The problem of background independent quantum gravity is the problem of defining a quantum field theory of matter and gravity in the absence of an underlying background geometry. Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a promising proposal for…
In this and the companion paper a novel holonomy formulation of so called Spin Foam models of lattice gauge gravity are explored. After giving a natural basis for the space of simplicity constraints we define a universal boundary Hilbert…
Spin foam models are an approach to quantum gravity based on the concept of sum over states, which aims to describe quantum spacetime dynamics in a way that its parent framework, loop quantum gravity, has not as of yet succeeded. Since…
We review the dual transformation from pure lattice gauge theory to spin foam models with an emphasis on a geometric viewpoint. This allows us to give a simple dual formulation of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, where spin foam surfaces are…
We give a very brief introduction to the group field theory approach to quantum gravity, a generalisation of matrix models for 2-dimensional quantum gravity to higher dimension, that has emerged recently from research in spin foam models.
We develop the general formalism for performing perturbative diagrammatic expansions in the lattice theory of quantum gravity. The results help establish a precise correspondence between continuum and lattice quantities, and should be a…
Spin Foam Models (SFMs) are covariant formulations of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) in 4 dimensions. This work studies the perturbations of SFMs on a flat background. It demonstrates for the first time that smooth curved spacetime geometries…