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Generalized Sums over Histories for Quantum Gravity II. Simplicial Conifolds
This paper examines the issues involved with concretely implementing a sum
over conifolds in the formulation of Euclidean sums over histories for gravity.
The first step in precisely formulating any sum over topological spaces is that
one must have an algorithmically implementable method of generating a list of
all spaces in the set to be summed over. This requirement causes well known
problems in the formulation of sums over manifolds in four or more dimensions;
there is no algorithmic method of determining whether or not a topological
space is an n-manifold in five or more dimensions and the issue of whether or
not such an algorithm exists is open in four. However, as this paper shows,
conifolds are algorithmically decidable in four dimensions. Thus the set of
4-conifolds provides a starting point for a concrete implementation of
Euclidean sums over histories in four dimensions. Explicit algorithms for
summing over various sets of 4-conifolds are presented in the context of Regge
calculus. Postscript figures available via anonymous ftp at
black-hole.physics.ubc.ca (137.82.43.40) in file gen2.ps.Comment: 82pp., plain TeX, To appear in Nucl. Phys. B,FF-92-
Generalized Sums over Histories for Quantum Gravity I. Smooth Conifolds
This paper proposes to generalize the histories included in Euclidean
functional integrals from manifolds to a more general set of compact
topological spaces. This new set of spaces, called conifolds, includes
nonmanifold stationary points that arise naturally in a semiclasssical
evaluation of such integrals; additionally, it can be proven that sequences of
approximately Einstein manifolds and sequences of approximately Einstein
conifolds both converge to Einstein conifolds. Consequently, generalized
Euclidean functional integrals based on these conifold histories yield
semiclassical amplitudes for sequences of both manifold and conifold histories
that approach a stationary point of the Einstein action. Therefore sums over
conifold histories provide a useful and self-consistent starting point for
further study of topological effects in quantum gravity. Postscript figures
available via anonymous ftp at black-hole.physics.ubc.ca (137.82.43.40) in file
gen1.ps.Comment: 81pp., plain TeX, To appear in Nucl. Phys.
Exotic Spaces in Quantum Gravity I: Euclidean Quantum Gravity in Seven Dimensions
It is well known that in four or more dimensions, there exist exotic
manifolds; manifolds that are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to each other.
More precisely, exotic manifolds are the same topological manifold but have
inequivalent differentiable structures. This situation is in contrast to the
uniqueness of the differentiable structure on topological manifolds in one, two
and three dimensions. As exotic manifolds are not diffeomorphic, one can argue
that quantum amplitudes for gravity formulated as functional integrals should
include a sum over not only physically distinct geometries and topologies but
also inequivalent differentiable structures. But can the inclusion of exotic
manifolds in such sums make a significant contribution to these quantum
amplitudes? This paper will demonstrate that it will. Simply connected exotic
Einstein manifolds with positive curvature exist in seven dimensions. Their
metrics are found numerically; they are shown to have volumes of the same order
of magnitude. Their contribution to the semiclassical evaluation of the
partition function for Euclidean quantum gravity in seven dimensions is
evaluated and found to be nontrivial. Consequently, inequivalent differentiable
structures should be included in the formulation of sums over histories for
quantum gravity.Comment: AmsTex, 23 pages 5 eps figures; replaced figures with ones which are
hopefully viewable in pdf forma
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