Related papers: Reality conditions for (2+1)-dimensional gravity c…
Classical physics is reformulated as a constrained Hamiltonian system in the history phase space. Dynamics, i.e. the Euler-Lagrange equations, play the role of first-class constraints. This allows us to apply standard methods from the…
String theory, as a theory containing quantum gravity, is usually thought to require more dimensions of spacetime than the usual 3+1. Here I argue on physical grounds that needing extra dimensions for strings may well be an artefact of…
A concise discussion of a 3+1-dimensional derivative coupling model, in which a massive Dirac field couples to the four-gradient of a massless scalar field, is given in order to elucidate the role of different concepts in quantum field…
Some physical consequences of the negation of the continuum hypothesis are considered. It is shown that quantum and classical mechanics are component parts of the multicomponent description of the set of variable infinite cardinality.…
We summarise a recently introduced general canonical formulation of discrete systems which is fully equivalent to the covariant formalism. This framework can handle varying phase space dimensions and is applied to simplicial gravity in…
We show that the principal part of the Dirac Hamiltonian in 3+1 dimensions emerges in a semi-classical approximation from a construction which encodes the kinematics of quantum gravity. The construction is a spectral triple over a…
We investigate the canonical structure of the (2+1)-dimensional non-linear $\sigma$ model in a $polynomial$ formulation. A current density defined in the non-linear $\sigma$ model is a vector field which satisfies a $formal$ flatness (or…
We carry out the canonical analysis of a covariant version of unimodular gravity in terms of the connection representation. We then proceed to quantize this theory by implementing the Dirac procedure. We confirm whether and how the Kodama…
The recently introduced manifestly covariant canonical quantization scheme is applied to gravity. New diffeomorphism anomalies generating a multi-dimensional generalization of the Virasoro algebra arise. This does not contradict theorems…
The gyrokinetic description of particle dynamics faces a basic difficulty when a special type of canonical variables is sought, i.e., the so-called \textit{gyrokinetic canonical variables}. These are defined in such a way that two of them…
We study the approach in which independent variables describing gravity are functions of the space-time embedding into a flat space of higher dimension. We formulate a canonical formalism for such a theory in a form, which requires imposing…
This is an introduction to quantum gravity, aimed at a fairly general audience and concentrating on what have historically two main approaches to quantum gravity: the covariant and canonical programs (string theory is not covered). The…
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…
Canonical quantization of gravitational systems is obstructed by the problem of time. Due to diffeomorphism symmetry the Hamiltonian vanishes: dynamics with respect to a background time parameter appears "frozen." Two strategies towards the…
Two Hamiltonian formulations of General Relativity, due to Pirani, Schild and Skinner (Phys. Rev. 87, 452, 1952) and Dirac (Proc. Roy. Soc. A 246, 333, 1958), are considered. Both formulations, despite having different expressions for…
We investigate the canonical quantization of gravity coupled to pointlike matter in 2+1 dimensions. Starting from the usual point particle action in the first order formalism, we introduce auxiliary variables which make the action locally…
We study covariant models for vacuum spherical gravity within a canonical setting. Starting from a general ansatz, we derive the most general family of Hamiltonian constraints that are quadratic in first-order and linear in second-order…
Geometric properties of operators of quantum Dirac constraints and physical observables are studied in semiclassical theory of generic constrained systems. The invariance transformations of the classical theory -- contact canonical…
The most fundamental characteristics of a physical system can often be deduced from its behaviour under discrete symmetry transformations such as time reversal, parity and chirality. Here we review basic symmetry properties of the…
In the Dirac approach to the generalized Hamiltonian formalism, dynamical systems with first- and second-class constraints are investigated. The classification and separation of constraints into the first- and second-class ones are…