相关论文: Morse index and causal continuity. A criterion for…
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…
A change of spatial topology in a causal, compact spacetime cannot occur when the metric is globally Lorentzian. One can however construct a causal metric from a Riemannian metric and a Morse function on the background cobordism manifold,…
Morse spacetime is a model of singular Lorentzian manifold, built upon a Morse function which serves as a global time function outside its critical points. The Borde-Sorkin conjecture states that a Morse spacetime is causally continuous if…
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 investigate topology change in (1+1) dimensions by analyzing the scalar-curvature action $1/2 \int R dV$ at the points of metric-degeneration that (with minor exceptions) any nontrivial Lorentzian cobordism necessarily possesses. In two…
Classical Morse theory proceeds by considering sublevel sets $f^{-1}(-\infty, a]$ of a Morse function $f: M \to R$, where $M$ is a smooth finite-dimensional manifold. In this paper, we study the topology of the level sets $f^{-1}(a)$ and…
We develop a systematic method for analyzing the causal structure at vertices in (2+1)-dimensional Lorentzian simplicial gravity. By examining the intersection patterns of lightcones emanating from a vertex with its simplicial…
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 there exists a canonical topology, naturally connected with the causal site of J. D. Christensen and L. Crane, a pointless algebraic structure motivated by quantum gravity. Taking a causal site compatible with Minkowski space,…
An important question that discrete approaches to quantum gravity must address is how continuum features of spacetime can be recovered from the discrete substructure. Here, we examine this question within the causal set approach to quantum…
This paper offers suggested improvements to the causal sets program in discrete gravity, which treats spacetime geometry as an emergent manifestation of causal structure at the fundamental scale. This viewpoint, which I refer to as the…
Topology change in quantum gravity is considered. An exact wave function of the Universe is calculated for topological Chern-Simons 2+1 dimensional gravity. This wave function occurs as the effect of a quantum anomaly which leads to the…
We present a short review of geometric and algebraic approach to causal cones and describe cone preserving transformations and their relationship with causal structure related to special and general theory of relativity. We describe Lie…
In this article we present a review of a geometric and algebraic approach to causal cones and describe cone preserving transformations and their relationship with the causal structure related to special and general relativity. We describe…
We study the constraints coming from local causality requirement in various $2+1$ dimensional dynamical theories of gravity. In topologically massive gravity, with a single parity non-invariant massive degree of freedom, and in new massive…
We introduce a canonical, compact topology, which we call weakly causal, naturally generated by the causal site of J. D. Christensen and L. Crane, a pointless algebraic structure motivated by certain problems of quantum gravity. We show…
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…
This dissertation presents a semiclassical analysis of conical topology change in $1+1$ spacetime dimensions wherein, to lowest order, the ambient spacetime is classical and fixed while the scalar field coupled to it is quantized. The…
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…