Related papers: The Gauss Linking Number in Quantum Gravity
The Jones polynomial and the Kauffman bracket are constructed, and their relation with knot and link theory is described. The quantum groups and tangle functor formalisms for understanding these invariants and their descendents are given.…
The flat, homogeneous, and isotropic universe with a massless scalar field is a paradigmatic model in Loop Quantum Cosmology. In spite of the prominent role that the model has played in the development of this branch of physics, there still…
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…
Recently a phenomenological relationship for the observed cosmological constant has been discussed by Motl and Carroll in the context of treating the cosmological constant as a $2\times 2$ matrix but no specific realization of the idea was…
I discuss possible implications a symmetry relating gravity with antigravity might have for smoothing out of the cosmological constant puzzle. For this purpose, a very simple model with spontaneous symmetry breaking is explored, that is…
The infrared structure of quantum gravity is explored by solving a lattice version of the Wheeler-DeWitt equations. In the present paper only the case of 2+1 dimensions is considered. The nature of the wavefunction solutions is such that a…
Relative self-linking and linking "numbers" for pairs of knots in oriented 3-manifolds are defined in terms of intersection invariants of immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds. The resulting concordance invariants generalize the usual…
In this work, we seek a cosmological mechanism that may define the sign of the effective gravitational coupling constant, {\em G}. To this end, we consider general scalar-tensor gravity theories as they provide the field theory natural…
We prove that for knots, the evaluation of the Jones polynomial at the sixth root of unity, as well as the evaluation of the $Q$-polynomial at the reciprocal of the golden ratio, are uniquely determined by the oriented homeomorphism type of…
Several lines of evidence suggest that quantum gravity at very short distances may behave effectively as a two-dimensional theory. I summarize these hints, and offer an additional argument based on the strong-coupling limit of the…
Linking numbers appear in local quantum field theory in the presence of tensor fields, which are closed two-forms on Minkowski space. Given any pair of such fields, it is shown that the commutator of the corresponding intrinsic (gauge…
We establish the global existence and precise estimates of a class of singularity-free cosmological solutions in nonlinear Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet (ESGB) gravity with quadratic coupling, in close agreement with previous numerical…
We provide a rigorous proof for the existence of homogeneous, isotropic and globally singularity-free cosmological solutions in Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet (EdGB) gravity with exponential coupling. While numerical studies suggested such…
We investigate a cosmological model with a big-brake singularity in the future: while the first time derivative of the scale factor goes to zero, its second time derivative tends to minus infinity. Although we also discuss the classical…
The Wheeler-DeWitt equation is considered in the context of generalized scalar-tensor theories of gravitation for Bianchi type I cosmology. Exact solutions are found for two selfinteracting potentials and arbitary coupling function. The WKB…
One of the main technical obstacles in constructing a consistent theory of quantum gravity is that the metric itself defines the causal structure required for quantization. This motivates implementing quantum aspects of gravity through an…
We present a gauge-invariant treatment of singularity resolution using loop quantum gravity techniques with respect to local SU(2) transformations. Our analysis reveals many novel features of quantum geometry which were till now hidden in…
It is conjectured that the coefficients of the Jones polynomial can be computed by counting solutions of the KW equations on a four-dimensional half-space, with certain boundary conditions that depend on a knot. The boundary conditions are…
The problem of finding the quantum theory of the gravitational field, and thus understanding what is quantum spacetime, is still open. One of the most active of the current approaches is loop quantum gravity. Loop quantum gravity is a…
An elementary introduction to knot theory and its link to quantum field theory is presented with an intention to provide details of some basic calculations in the subject, which are not easily found in texts. Study of Chern-Simons theory…