A combinatorial approach to discrete geometry

We present a paralell approach to discrete geometry: the first one introduces Voronoi cell complexes from statistical tessellations in order to know the mean scalar curvature in term of the mean number of edges of a cell. The second one gives the restriction of a graph from a regular tessellation in order to calculate the curvature from pure combinatorial properties of the graph. Our proposal is based in some epistemological pressupositions: the macroscopic continuous geometry is only a fiction, very usefull for describing phenomena at certain sacales, but it is only an approximation to the true geometry. In the discrete geometry one starts from a set of elements and the relation among them without presuposing space and time as a background.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages with 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the XXVIII Spanish Relativity Meeting (ERE2005), 6-10 September 2005, Oviedo, Spai

A Lorentzian Gromov-Hausdoff notion of distance

This paper is the first of three in which I study the moduli space of isometry classes of (compact) globally hyperbolic spacetimes (with boundary). I introduce a notion of Gromov-Hausdorff distance which makes this moduli space into a metric space. Further properties of this metric space are studied in the next papers. The importance of the work can be situated in fields such as cosmology, quantum gravity and - for the mathematicians - global Lorentzian geometry.Comment: 20 pages, 0 figures, submitted to Classical and quantum gravity, seriously improved presentatio

The Semiclassical Limit of Loop Quantum Cosmology

The continuum and semiclassical limits of isotropic, spatially flat loop quantum cosmology are discussed, with an emphasis on the role played by the Barbero-Immirzi parameter \gamma in controlling space-time discreteness. In this way, standard quantum cosmology is shown to be the simultaneous limit \gamma \to 0, j \to \infty of loop quantum cosmology. Here, j is a label of the volume eigenvalues, and the simultaneous limit is technically the same as the classical limit \hbar \to 0, l \to \infty of angular momentum in quantum mechanics. Possible lessons for semiclassical states at the dynamical level in the full theory of quantum geometry are mentioned.Comment: 10 page

Short-distance regularity of Green's function and UV divergences in entanglement entropy

Reformulating our recent result (arXiv:1007.1246 [hep-th]) in coordinate space we point out that no matter how regular is short-distance behavior of Green's function the entanglement entropy in the corresponding quantum field theory is always UV divergent. In particular, we discuss a recent example by Padmanabhan (arXiv:1007.5066 [gr-qc]) of a regular Green's function and show that provided this function arises in a field theory the entanglement entropy in this theory is UV divergent and calculate the leading divergent term.Comment: LaTeX, 6 page

Where are the degrees of freedom responsible for black hole entropy?

Considering the entanglement between quantum field degrees of freedom inside and outside the horizon as a plausible source of black hole entropy, we address the question: {\it where are the degrees of freedom that give rise to this entropy located?} When the field is in ground state, the black hole area law is obeyed and the degrees of freedom near the horizon contribute most to the entropy. However, for excited state, or a superposition of ground state and excited state, power-law corrections to the area law are obtained, and more significant contributions from the degrees of freedom far from the horizon are shown.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Invited talk at Theory Canada III, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 200

Thermal behavior induced by vacuum polarization on causal horizons in comparison with the standard heat bath formalism

Modular theory of operator algebras and the associated KMS property are used to obtain a unified description for the thermal aspects of the standard heat bath situation and those caused by quantum vacuum fluctuations from localization. An algebraic variant of lightfront holography reveals that the vacuum polarization on wedge horizons is compressed into the lightray direction. Their absence in the transverse direction is the prerequisite to an area (generalized Bekenstein-) behavior of entropy-like measures which reveal the loss of purity of the vacuum due to restrictions to wedges and their horizons. Besides the well-known fact that localization-induced (generalized Hawking-) temperature is fixed by the geometric aspects, this area behavior (versus the standard volume dependence) constitutes the main difference between localization-caused and standard thermal behavior.Comment: 15 page Latex, dedicated to A. A. Belavin on the occasion of his 60th birthda

On alternative approaches to Lorentz violation in loop quantum gravity inspired models

Recent claims point out that possible violations of Lorentz symmetry appearing in some semiclassical models of extended matter dynamics motivated by loop quantum gravity can be removed by a different choice of canonically conjugated variables. In this note we show that such alternative is inconsistent with the choice of variables in the underlying quantum theory together with the semiclassical approximation, as long as the correspondence principle is maintained. A consistent choice will violate standard Lorentz invariance. Thus, to preserve a relativity principle in this framework, the linear realization of Lorentz symmetry should be extended or superseded.Comment: 4 pages, revtex4, no figures, references adde

Thermodynamics and area in Minkowski space: Heat capacity of entanglement

Tracing over the degrees of freedom inside (or outside) a sub-volume V of Minkowski space in a given quantum state |psi>, results in a statistical ensemble described by a density matrix rho. This enables one to relate quantum fluctuations in V when in the state |psi>, to statistical fluctuations in the ensemble described by rho. These fluctuations scale linearly with the surface area of V. If V is half of space, then rho is the density matrix of a canonical ensemble in Rindler space. This enables us to `derive' area scaling of thermodynamic quantities in Rindler space from area scaling of quantum fluctuations in half of Minkowski space. When considering shapes other than half of Minkowski space, even though area scaling persists, rho does not have an interpretation as a density matrix of a canonical ensemble in a curved, or geometrically non-trivial, background.Comment: 17 page