Related papers: Unfashionable observations about three dimensional…
A four dimensional generally covariant field theory is presented which describes non-dynamical three geometries coupled to scalar fields. The theory has an infinite number of physical observables (or constants of the motion) which are…
It is well known that gravity in 2+1 dimensions can be recast as Chern-Simons theory, with the gauge group given by the local isometry group, depending on the metric signature and the cosmological constant. Point particles are added into…
A 3d generally covariant field theory having some unusual properties is described. The theory has a degenerate 3-metric which effectively makes it a 2d field theory in disguise. For 2-manifolds without boundary, it has an infinite number of…
We do not yet know how to quantize gravity in 3+1 dimensions, but in lower dimensions we face the opposite problem: many of the approaches originally developed for (3+1)-dimensional gravity can be successfully implemented in 2+1 dimensions,…
The existing approaches to quantization of gravity aim at giving quantum description of 3-geometry following to the ideas of the Wheeler -- DeWitt geometrodynamics. In this description the role of gauge gravitational degrees of freedom is…
These notes summarise a talk surveying the combinatorial or Hamiltonian quantisation of three dimensional gravity in the Chern-Simons formulation, with an emphasis on the role of quantum groups and on the way the various physical constants…
In this paper the quantization of the 2$+$1-dimensional gravity couplet to the massless Dirac field is carried out. The problem is solved by the application of the new Dynamic Quantization Method [1,2]. It is well-known that in general…
Inspired by previous work in 2+1 dimensional quantum gravity, which found evidence for a discretization of time in the quantum theory, we reexamine the issue for the case of pure Lorentzian gravity with vanishing cosmological constant and…
We propose a step-by-step manual for the construction of alternative theories of gravity, perturbatively as well as nonperturbatively. The construction is guided by no more than two fundamental principles that we impose on the gravitational…
Gauge-invariant observables for quantum gravity are described, with explicit constructions given primarily to leading order in Newton's constant, analogous to and extending constructions first given by Dirac in quantum electrodynamics.…
One of the sources of incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics is perturbative non-renormalizability of quantum gravity in $3+1$ spacetime dimensions. Here, we show that in the presence of disorder induced by random…
Exactly soluble models can serve as excellent tools to explore conceptual issues in non-perturbative quantum gravity. In perturbative approaches, it is only the two radiative modes of the linearized gravitational field that are quantized.…
In the context of a Poincar\'e gauge theoretical formulation, pure gravity in 3+1-dimensions is dimensionally reduced to gravity in 2+1-dimensions with or without cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The dimensional reductions are consistent…
It is postulated that quantum gravity is a sum over causal structures coupled to matter via scale evolution. Quantized causal structures can be described by studying simple matrix models where matrices are replaced by an algebra of quantum…
The simple quantum gravity model, based on a new conjecture within the canonically quantized 3+1 general relativity, is presented. The conjecture states that matter fields are functionals of an embedding volume form only, and reduces the…
We introduce a general approximation scheme in order to calculate gauge invariant observables in the canonical formulation of general relativity. Using this scheme we will show how the observables and the dynamics of field theories on a…
The usual description of 2+1 dimensional Einstein gravity as a Chern-Simons (CS) theory is extended to a one parameter family of descriptions of 2+1 Einstein gravity. This is done by replacing the Poincare' gauge group symmetry by a…
In a previous paper, we showed how to use the techniques of the group of loops to formulate the loop approach to gravity proposed by Mandelstam in the 1960's. Those techniques allow to overcome some of the difficulties that had been…
We investigate the relation between measurements and the physical observables for vacuum spacetimes with compact spatial surfaces in (2+1)-gravity with vanishing cosmological constant. By considering an observer who emits lightrays that…
We propose a model of quantum gravity in arbitrary dimensions defined in terms of the BV quantization of a supersymmetric, infinite dimensional matrix model. This gives an (AKSZ-type) Chern-Simons theory with gauge algebra the space of…