English

Is de Sitter space a fermion?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2014-01-20 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Following up on a recent model yielding fermionic geometries, I turn to more familiar territory to address the question of statistics in purely geometric theories. Working in the gauge formulation of gravity, where geometry is characterized by a symmetry broken Cartan connection, I give strong evidence to suggest that de Sitter space itself, and a class of de Sitter-like geometries, can be consistently quantized fermionically. By this I mean that de Sitter space can be quantized such that the wavefunctional picks up an overall minus sign under a 2π2\pi rotational diffeomorphism. Surprisingly, the underlying mathematics is the same as that of the Skyrme model for strongly interacting baryons. This promotes the question {\it "Is geometry bosonic or fermionic?"} beyond the realm of the rhetorical and places it on uncomfortably familiar ground.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1111.3695,
  title  = {Is de Sitter space a fermion?},
  author = {Andrew Randono},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.3695},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

21 pages, 4 figures. V2: significant changes to the second half of paper and overall clarification of argument. Discussion of geometric quantization and topological aspects of the quantum phase space added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:36:42.898Z