Related papers: A Classical Sequential Growth Dynamics for Causal …
The Causal Set approach to quantum gravity asserts that spacetime, at its smallest length scale, has a discrete structure. This discrete structure takes the form of a locally finite order relation, where the order, corresponding with the…
The ``generic'' family of classical sequential growth dynamics for causal sets provides cosmological models of causal sets which are a testing ground for ideas about the, as yet unknown, quantum theory. In particular we can investigate how…
We discuss the causal set approach to discrete quantum gravity. We begin by describing a classical sequential growth process in which the universe grows one element at a time in discrete steps. At each step the process has the form of a…
One of approaches to quantum gravity is different models of a discrete pregeometry. An example of a discrete pregeometry on a microscopic scale is introduced. This is the particular case of a causal set. The causal set is a locally finite…
A classical precursor to a full quantum dynamics for causal sets has been forumlated in terms of a stochastic sequential growth process in which the elements of the causal set arise in a sort of accretion process. The transition…
We begin by describing a sequential growth model in which the universe grows one element at a time in discrete time steps. At each step, the process has the form of a causal set and the "completed" universe is given by a path consisting of…
The spacetime discreteness of causal set theory has enabled the formulation of novel spacetime dynamics. In these so-called "growth" dynamics, a causal set spacetime is generated probabilistically by means of a random walk on certain tree…
In the causal set approach to quantum gravity the spacetime continuum arises as an approximation to a fundamentally discrete substructure, the causal set, which is a locally finite partially ordered set. The causal set paradigm was…
We consider a covariant causal set approach to discrete quantum gravity. We first review the microscopic picture of this approach. In this picture a universe grows one element at a time and its geometry is determined by a sequence of…
Non-perturbative theories of quantum gravity inevitably include configurations that fail to resemble physically reasonable spacetimes at large scales. Often, these configurations are entropically dominant and pose an obstacle to obtaining…
Within the context of a recently proposed family of stochastic dynamical laws for causal sets, one can ask whether the universe might have emerged from the quantum-gravity era with a large enough size and with sufficient homogeneity to…
This paper is based on the causal set approach to discrete quantum gravity. We first describe a classical sequential growth process (CSGP) in which the universe grows one element at a time in discrete steps. At each step the process has the…
The causal set approach to quantum gravity is based on the hypothesis that the underlying structure of spacetime is that of a random partial order. We survey some of the interesting mathematics that has arisen in connection with the causal…
The ideas of spacetime discreteness and causality are important in several of the popular approaches to quantum gravity. But if discreteness is accepted as an initial assumption, conflict with Lorentz invariance can be a consequence. The…
In order to construct a quantum theory of gravity, we may have to abandon certain assumptions we were making. In particular, the concept of spacetime as a continuum substratum is questioned. Causal Sets is an attempt to construct a quantum…
In this thesis we investigate the importance of causality in non-perturbative approaches to quantum gravity. Firstly, causal sets are introduced as a simple kinematical model for causal geometry. It is shown how causal sets could account…
This paper presents an brief review of some recent work on the causal set approach to quantum gravity. Causal sets are a discretisation of spacetime that allow the symmetries of GR to be preserved in the continuum approximation. One…
A large class of the dynamical laws for causal sets described by a classical process of sequential growth yield a cyclic universe, whose cycles of expansion and contraction are punctuated by single `origin elements' of the causal set. We…
This paper provides a thorough introduction to the causal set hypothesis aimed at students, and other interested persons, with some knowledge of general relativity and nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. I elucidate the arguments for why the…
A new approach to quantum gravity is described which joins the loop representation formulation of the canonical theory to the causal set formulation of the path integral. The theory assigns quantum amplitudes to special classes of causal…