A trace on fractal graphs and the Ihara zeta function

Starting with Ihara's work in 1968, there has been a growing interest in the study of zeta functions of finite graphs, by Sunada, Hashimoto, Bass, Stark and Terras, Mizuno and Sato, to name just a few authors. Then, Clair and Mokhtari-Sharghi have studied zeta functions for infinite graphs acted upon by a discrete group of automorphisms. The main formula in all these treatments establishes a connection between the zeta function, originally defined as an infinite product, and the Laplacian of the graph. In this article, we consider a different class of infinite graphs. They are fractal graphs, i.e. they enjoy a self-similarity property. We define a zeta function for these graphs and, using the machinery of operator algebras, we prove a determinant formula, which relates the zeta function with the Laplacian of the graph. We also prove functional equations, and a formula which allows approximation of the zeta function by the zeta functions of finite subgraphs.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures. v3: minor corrections, to appear on Transactions AM

Tautological relations and the r-spin Witten conjecture

In a series of two preprints, Y.-P. Lee studied relations satisfied by all formal Gromov-Witten potentials, as defined by A. Givental. He called them "universal relations" and studied their connection with tautological relations in the cohomology ring of moduli spaces of stable curves. Building on Y.-P. Lee's work, we give a simple proof of the fact that every tautological relation gives rise to a universal relation (which was also proved by Y.-P. Lee modulo certain results announced by C. Teleman). In particular, this implies that in any semi-simple Gromov-Witten theory where arbitrary correlators can be expressed in genus 0 correlators using only tautological relations, the formal and the geometric Gromov-Witten potentials coincide. As the most important application, we show that our results suffice to deduce the statement of a 1991 Witten conjecture on r-spin structures from the results obtained by Givental for the corresponding formal Gromov-Witten potential. The conjecture in question states that certain intersection numbers on the moduli space of r-spin structures can be arranged into a power series that satisfies the r-KdV (or r-th higher Gelfand-Dikii) hierarchy of partial differential equations.Comment: 46 pages, 7 figures, A discussion of the analyticity of Gromov-Witten potentials and a more careful description of Givental's group action added in Section 5; minor changes elsewher

Spectral dimension of quantum geometries

The spectral dimension is an indicator of geometry and topology of spacetime and a tool to compare the description of quantum geometry in various approaches to quantum gravity. This is possible because it can be defined not only on smooth geometries but also on discrete (e.g., simplicial) ones. In this paper, we consider the spectral dimension of quantum states of spatial geometry defined on combinatorial complexes endowed with additional algebraic data: the kinematical quantum states of loop quantum gravity (LQG). Preliminarily, the effects of topology and discreteness of classical discrete geometries are studied in a systematic manner. We look for states reproducing the spectral dimension of a classical space in the appropriate regime. We also test the hypothesis that in LQG, as in other approaches, there is a scale dependence of the spectral dimension, which runs from the topological dimension at large scales to a smaller one at short distances. While our results do not give any strong support to this hypothesis, we can however pinpoint when the topological dimension is reproduced by LQG quantum states. Overall, by exploring the interplay of combinatorial, topological and geometrical effects, and by considering various kinds of quantum states such as coherent states and their superpositions, we find that the spectral dimension of discrete quantum geometries is more sensitive to the underlying combinatorial structures than to the details of the additional data associated with them.Comment: 39 pages, 18 multiple figures. v2: discussion improved, minor typos correcte

A Gaussian Weave for Kinematical Loop Quantum Gravity

Remarkable efforts in the study of the semi-classical regime of kinematical loop quantum gravity are currently underway. In this note, we construct a ``quasi-coherent'' weave state using Gaussian factors. In a similar fashion to some other proposals, this state is peaked in both the connection and the spin network basis. However, the state constructed here has the novel feature that, in the spin network basis, the main contribution for this state is given by the fundamental representation, independently of the value of the parameter that regulates the Gaussian width.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, Revtex file. Comments added and references updated. Final version to appear in IJMP-