Related papers: Timelike surfaces in Lorentz covariant loop gravit…
In the search for a covariant formulation for Loop Quantum Gravity, spin foams have arised as the corresponding discrete space-time structure and, among the different models, the Barrett-Crane model seems the most promising. Here, we study…
We discuss the geometry of timelike surfaces (two-dimensional submanifolds) in a Lorentzian manifold and its interpretation in terms of general relativity. A classification of such surfaces is presented which distinguishes four cases of…
We consider general relativity with cosmological constant minimally coupled to the electromagnetic field and assume that the four-dimensional space-time manifold is a warped product of two surfaces with Lorentzian and Euclidean signature…
We review the canonical analysis of the Palatini action without going to the time gauge as in the standard derivation of Loop Quantum Gravity. This allows to keep track of the Lorentz gauge symmetry and leads to a theory of Covariant Loop…
I review the formalism of loop quantum gravity, in both its real and complex formulations, and spin foam theory which is its path integral counterpart. Spin networks for non-compact groups are introduced (following hep-th/0205268) to deal…
In the Ashtekar-Barbero formulation of canonical general relativity based on an SU(2) connection, Lorentz covariance is a subtle issue which has been the focus of some debate. Here we present a Lorentz covariant formulation generalising the…
This review is devoted to the analysis of the mutual consistency of the spin foam and canonical loop quantizations in three and four spacetime dimensions. In the three-dimensional context, where the two approaches are in good agreement, we…
We suggest a modification of the Barrett-Crane spin foam model of 4-dimensional Lorentzian general relativity motivated by the canonical quantization. The starting point is Lorentz covariant loop quantum gravity. Its kinematical Hilbert…
We study the spectrum of the length and area operators in Lorentzian loop quantum gravity, in 2+1 spacetime dimensions. We find that the spectrum of spacelike intervals is continuous, whereas the spectrum of timelike intervals is discrete.…
I illustrate a simple hamiltonian formulation of general relativity, derived from the work of Esposito, Gionti and Stornaiolo, which is manifestly 4d generally covariant and is defined over a finite dimensional space. The spacetime…
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…
A crucial step in the history of General Relativity was Einstein's adoption of the principle of general covariance which demands a coordinate independent formulation for our spacetime theories. General covariance helps us to disentangle a…
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 investigate the Hilbert space in the Lorentz covariant approach to loop quantum gravity. We restrict ourselves to the space where all area operators are simultaneously diagonalizable, assuming that it exists. In this sector quantum…
Spin foam models are the path integral counterparts to loop quantized canonical theories. In the last few years several spin foam models of gravity have been proposed, most of which live on finite simplicial lattice spacetime. The lattice…
We consider defining time as a function of a cyclical field, an abstraction of a clock. The definition of time corresponds to a novel interpretation of the relationship between space-time coordinates of observers at different locations in…
In this work we study the geometric properties of spacelike foliations by hypersurfaces on a Lorentz manifold. We find an equation that relates the foliation with the ambient manifold and apply it to investigate conditions for the leaves…
This work is developed in the context of Lorentzian spin-foams with space- and time-like boundaries. It is argued that the equations describing the semiclassical regime of the various spin-foam amplitudes admit a common biquaternionic…
A mathematical formalism for treating spacetime topology as a quantum observable is provided. We describe spacetime foam entirely in algebraic terms. To implement the correspondence principle we express the classical spacetime manifold of…
Spin foams of 4d gravity were recently extended from complexes with purely spacelike surfaces to complexes that also contain timelike surfaces. In this article, we express the associated partition function in terms of vertex amplitudes and…