相关论文: A handlebody calculus for topology change

Topology change is considered to be a necessary feature of quantum gravity by some authors, and impossible by others. One of the main arguments against it is that spacetimes with changing spatial topology have bad causal properties. Borde…

The role of topology in elementary quantum physics is discussed in detail. It is argued that attributes of classical spatial topology emerge from properties of state vectors with suitably smooth time evolution. Equivalently, they emerge…

The result that, for a scalar quantum field propagating on a ``trousers'' topology in 1+1 dimensions, the crotch singularity is a source for an infinite burst of energy has been used to argue against the occurrence of topology change in…

We study topology change in (2+1)D gravity coupling with non-Abelian SO(2,1) Higgs field from the point of view of Morse theory. It is shown that the Higgs potential can be identified as a Morse function. The critical points of the latter…

We consider changes of the topological charge of vortices in quantum mechanics by investigating analytical examples where the creation or annihilation of vortices occurs. In classical hydrodynamics of non-viscous fluids the Helmholtz-Kelvin…

The role of topology change in a fundamental theory of quantum gravity is still a matter of debate. However, when regarding string theory as two-dimensional quantum gravity, topological fluctuations are essential. Here we present a third…

We investigate topology-changing processes in 4-dimensional quantum gravity with a negative cosmological constant. By playing the ``gluing-polytope game" in hyperbolic geometry, we explicitly construct an instanton-like solution without…

Studies in 1+1 dimensions suggest that causally discontinuous topology changing spacetimes are suppressed in quantum gravity. Borde and Sorkin have conjectured that causal discontinuities are associated precisely with index 1 or n-1 Morse…

A particular approach to topology change in quantum gravity is reviewed, showing that several aspects of Stephen's work are intertwined with it in an essential way. Speculations are made on possible implications for the causal set approach…

We study the process of compactification as a topology change. It is shown how the mediating spacetime topology, or cobordism, may be simplified through surgery. Within the causal Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, it is shown that any…

We show that superpositions of classical states in quantum gravity with fixed topology can lead to new classical states with a different topology. We study this phenomenon in a particular limit of the LLM geometries. In this limit, the UV…

The spin-statistics connection, quantum gravity and other physical considerations suggest that classical space-time topology is not an immutable attribute and can change in quantum physics. The implementation of topology change using…

In this paper, we outline a new approach to quantum gravity; describing states for a bounded region of spacetime as eigenstates for two classes of physically plausible gedanken experiments. We end up with two complementary descriptions in…

We investigate topology change in 3D. Using Morse theory and handle decomposition we find the set of elementary cobordisms for 3-manifolds. These are: (i) \O <-> S^2; (ii) \Sigma_g <-> \Sigma_{g+1}; (iii) \Sigma_{g_1} \sqcup \Sigma_{g_2}…

Two singularity theorems can be proven if one attempts to let a Lorentzian cobordism interpolate between two topologically distinct manifolds. On the other hand, Cartier and DeWitt-Morette have given a rigorous definition for quantum field…

We connect topological changes that can occur in $3$-space via surgery, with black hole formation, the formation of wormholes and new generalizations of these phenomena, including relationships between quantum entanglement and wormhole…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of topology change in the initial universe. In this study, the concept of $G$-cobordism is introduced to argue about the topology change of the manifold on which a transformation group…

A new approach is suggested which allows to describe phenomenologically arbitrary topologies of the Universe. It consists in a generalizaton of third quantization. This quantization is carried out for the case of asymptotic closeness to a…

In this letter we show that in a Kaluza-Klein framework we can have arbitrary topology change between the macroscopic (i.e. noncompactified) spacelike 3-hypersurfaces. This is achieved by using the compactified dimensions as a catalyser for…

We develop techniques to treat massive Kaluza-Klein modes to arbitrary order in perturbation theory. The Higgs mechanism that renders the higher Kaluza-Klein modes massive is displayed. To this end we give an algorithm in perturbation…