A New Recursion Relation for the 6j-Symbol

The 6j-symbol is a fundamental object from the re-coupling theory of SU(2) representations. In the limit of large angular momenta, its asymptotics is known to be described by the geometry of a tetrahedron with quantized lengths. This article presents a new recursion formula for the square of the 6j-symbol. In the asymptotic regime, the new recursion is shown to characterize the closure of the relevant tetrahedron. Since the 6j-symbol is the basic building block of the Ponzano-Regge model for pure three-dimensional quantum gravity, we also discuss how to generalize the method to derive more general recursion relations on the full amplitudes.Comment: 10 pages, v2: title and introduction changed, paper re-structured; Annales Henri Poincare (2011

Holomorphic Simplicity Constraints for 4d Spinfoam Models

Within the framework of spinfoam models, we revisit the simplicity constraints reducing topological BF theory to 4d Riemannian gravity. We use the reformulation of SU(2) intertwiners and spin networks in term of spinors, which has come out from both the recently developed U(N) framework for SU(2) intertwiners and the twisted geometry approach to spin networks and spinfoam boundary states. Using these tools, we are able to perform a holomorphic/anti-holomorphic splitting of the simplicity constraints and define a new set of holomorphic simplicity constraints, which are equivalent to the standard ones at the classical level and which can be imposed strongly on intertwiners at the quantum level. We then show how to solve these new holomorphic simplicity constraints using coherent intertwiner states. We further define the corresponding coherent spin network functionals and introduce a new spinfoam model for 4d Riemannian gravity based on these holomorphic simplicity constraints and whose amplitudes are defined from the evaluation of the new coherent spin networks.Comment: 27 page

Holonomy observables in Ponzano-Regge type state sum models

We study observables on group elements in the Ponzano-Regge model. We show that these observables have a natural interpretation in terms of Feynman diagrams on a sphere and contrast them to the well studied observables on the spin labels. We elucidate this interpretation by showing how they arise from the no-gravity limit of the Turaev-Viro model and Chern-Simons theory.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

The 1/N expansion of colored tensor models

In this paper we perform the 1/N expansion of the colored three dimensional Boulatov tensor model. As in matrix models, we obtain a systematic topological expansion, with more and more complicated topologies suppressed by higher and higher powers of N. We compute the first orders of the expansion and prove that only graphs corresponding to three spheres S^3 contribute to the leading order in the large N limit.Comment: typos corrected, references update

Generating Functions for Coherent Intertwiners

We study generating functions for the scalar products of SU(2) coherent intertwiners, which can be interpreted as coherent spin network evaluations on a 2-vertex graph. We show that these generating functions are exactly summable for different choices of combinatorial weights. Moreover, we identify one choice of weight distinguished thanks to its geometric interpretation. As an example of dynamics, we consider the simple case of SU(2) flatness and describe the corresponding Hamiltonian constraint whose quantization on coherent intertwiners leads to partial differential equations that we solve. Furthermore, we generalize explicitly these Wheeler-DeWitt equations for SU(2) flatness on coherent spin networks for arbitrary graphs.Comment: 31 page

Bubbles and jackets: new scaling bounds in topological group field theories

We use a reformulation of topological group field theories in 3 and 4 dimensions in terms of variables associated to vertices, in 3d, and edges, in 4d, to obtain new scaling bounds for their Feynman amplitudes. In both 3 and 4 dimensions, we obtain a bubble bound proving the suppression of singular topologies with respect to the first terms in the perturbative expansion (in the cut-off). We also prove a new, stronger jacket bound than the one currently available in the literature. We expect these results to be relevant for other tensorial field theories of this type, as well as for group field theory models for 4d quantum gravity.Comment: v2: Minor modifications to match published versio

Colored Group Field Theory

Group field theories are higher dimensional generalizations of matrix models. Their Feynman graphs are fat and in addition to vertices, edges and faces, they also contain higher dimensional cells, called bubbles. In this paper, we propose a new, fermionic Group Field Theory, posessing a color symmetry, and take the first steps in a systematic study of the topological properties of its graphs. Unlike its bosonic counterpart, the bubbles of the Feynman graphs of this theory are well defined and readily identified. We prove that this graphs are combinatorial cellular complexes. We define and study the cellular homology of this graphs. Furthermore we define a homotopy transformation appropriate to this graphs. Finally, the amplitude of the Feynman graphs is shown to be related to the fundamental group of the cellular complex

Classical Setting and Effective Dynamics for Spinfoam Cosmology

We explore how to extract effective dynamics from loop quantum gravity and spinfoams truncated to a finite fixed graph, with the hope of modeling symmetry-reduced gravitational systems. We particularize our study to the 2-vertex graph with N links. We describe the canonical data using the recent formulation of the phase space in terms of spinors, and implement a symmetry-reduction to the homogeneous and isotropic sector. From the canonical point of view, we construct a consistent Hamiltonian for the model and discuss its relation with Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies. Then, we analyze the dynamics from the spinfoam approach. We compute exactly the transition amplitude between initial and final coherent spin networks states with support on the 2-vertex graph, for the choice of the simplest two-complex (with a single space-time vertex). The transition amplitude verifies an exact differential equation that agrees with the Hamiltonian constructed previously. Thus, in our simple setting we clarify the link between the canonical and the covariant formalisms.Comment: 38 pages, v2: Link with discretized loop quantum gravity made explicit and emphasize

Group field theory and simplicial quantum gravity

We present a new Group Field Theory for 4d quantum gravity. It incorporates the constraints that give gravity from BF theory, and has quantum amplitudes with the explicit form of simplicial path integrals for 1st order gravity. The geometric interpretation of the variables and of the contributions to the quantum amplitudes is manifest. This allows a direct link with other simplicial gravity approaches, like quantum Regge calculus, in the form of the amplitudes of the model, and dynamical triangulations, which we show to correspond to a simple restriction of the same.Comment: 14 pages, no figures; RevTex4; v2: definition of the model modified, discussion extended and improve

Encoding simplicial quantum geometry in group field theories

We show that a new symmetry requirement on the GFT field, in the context of an extended GFT formalism, involving both Lie algebra and group elements, leads, in 3d, to Feynman amplitudes with a simplicial path integral form based on the Regge action, to a proper relation between the discrete connection and the triad vectors appearing in it, and to a much more satisfactory and transparent encoding of simplicial geometry already at the level of the GFT action.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX, references adde