Related papers: Vassiliev invariants: a new framework for quantum …
We study the Vassiliev knot invariant v_2 of degree 2. We present it via the degrees of maps of various configuration spaces related to a knot to products of spheres. This gives rise to numerous geometrical and combinatorial formulas for…
Tensor networks prepare states that share many features of states in quantum gravity. However, standard constructions are not diffeomorphism invariant and do not support an algebra of non-commuting area operators. Recently, analogues of…
This paper studies rotational virtual knot theory and its relationship with quantum link invariants. Every quantum link invariant for classical knots and links extends to an invariant of rotational virtual knots and links. The paper sets up…
Finite-order invariants of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds (including non-orientable ones) are constructed and studied by methods of the topology of discriminant sets. Obstructions to the integrability of admissible weight systems to…
This series of lectures gives a simple and self-contained introduction to the non-perturbative and background independent loop approach of canonical quantum gravity. The Hilbert space of kinematical quantum states is constructed and a…
In a remarkable paper, T. Koslowski introduced kinematical representations for loop quantum gravity in which there is a non-degenerate spatial background metric present. He also considered their properties, and showed that Gauss and…
Loop quantum gravity is an approach to quantum gravity that starts from the Hamiltonian formulation in terms of a connection and its canonical conjugate. Quantization proceeds in the spirit of Dirac: First one defines an algebra of basic…
We introduce new topological quantum invariants of compact oriented 3-manifolds with boundary where the boundary is a disjoint union of two identical surfaces. The invariants are constructed via surgery on manifolds of the form $F \times I$…
In the prequel of this paper, Kauffman and Ogasa introduced new topological quantum invariants of compact oriented 3-manifolds with boundary where the boundary is a disjoint union of two identical surfaces. The invariants are constructed…
We introduce a theory of virtual Legendrian knots. A virtual Legendrian knot is a cooriented wavefront on an oriented surface up to Legendrian isotopy of its lift to the unit cotangent bundle and stabilization and destablization of the…
We apply the ``consistent discretization'' approach to general relativity leaving the spatial slices continuous. The resulting theory is free of the diffeomorphism and Hamiltonian constraints, but one can impose the diffeomorphism…
I describe a possible perspective on the current state of loop quantum gravity, at the light of the developments of the last years. I point out that a theory is now available, having a well-defined background-independent kinematics and a…
This paper is expository and is accessible to students. We define simple invariants of knots or links (linking number, Arf-Casson invariants and Alexander-Conway polynomials) motivated by interesting results whose statements are accessible…
Several approaches to the dynamics of loop quantum gravity involve discretizing the equations of motion. The resulting discrete theories are known to be problematic since the first class algebra of constraints of the continuum theory…
We construct an inverse system of unstable Vassiliev spectral sequences on the spaces of plumbers' knots, which model the homotopy type of the space of long knots, and show that the limit of these sequences contains the finite type…
We extend the theory of Vassiliev (or finite type) invariants for knots to knotoids using two different approaches. Firstly, we take closures on knotoids to obtain knots and we use the Vassiliev invariants for knots, proving that these are…
We show that the Vassiliev invariants of orders $\leq n$ of a knot K, are obstructions to finding a regular Seifert surface, S, whose complement looks "simple" (e.g. like the complement of a disc) to the lower central series of its…
Solutions to both the diffeomorphism and the hamiltonian constraint of quantum gravity have been found in the loop representation, which is based on Ashtekar's new variables. While the diffeomorphism constraint is easily solved by…
We introduce a new basis on the state space of non-perturbative quantum gravity. The states of this basis are linearly independent, are well defined in both the loop representation and the connection representation, and are labeled by a…
We construct knot invariants categorifying the quantum knot variants for all representations of quantum groups. We show that these invariants coincide with previous invariants defined by Khovanov for sl(2) and sl(3) and by…